December 3, 2009 is the 25th Anniversary of the Bhopal Disaster. On the early morning of December 3rd, 1984, a cloud of toxic gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, spreading  Methyl isocyanate  and other deadly gases through the city. Thousand died that day, and over 20,000 had since perished in what is widely recognized as the world’s worst industrial catastrophe. Estimates indicate that over 100,000 people are still suffering health related effects from the disaster, and the former Union Carbide factory continues to pollute the local area, with poisonous chemical leaching into groundwater of the 25,000 residents of the nearby area.

Union Carbide was acquired by U.S.-based Dow Chemical in 2001, and since that time, Dow has continued to resist efforts to clean up the factory site, adequately address the continuing health impacts of the disaster, and submit to criminal prosecution in India, where Union Carbide and its former CEO Warren Anderson face manslaughter charges in a Bhopal court. EarthRights International represents residents of Bhopal who are suing Union Carbide for on-going toxic pollution and water contamination from the disaster site.

To mark the anniversary, communities in Bhopal and around the world are holding an International Day of Action with a series of events to mark the anniversary including calls on Dow Chemicals to account for the disaster and the on-going pollution affecting local communities.

The on-going Bhopal tragedy is unfortunately not an isolated incident. Corporations around the globe continue to pollute the environment and ignore the basic human rights of communities living in the shadows of their operations.

From Burma to Nigeria, the Amazon to Papua New Guinea, from Richmond California to Kazakhstan, multinational corporations too often dictate policies or are complicit with unaccountable regimes that care less about the impacts of corporate activities and more about profits for their companies, shareholders and corrupt government officials.

Today we honor the thousands of survivors of the Bhopal disaster who continue to bear the heavy burden of the on-going pollution while refusing to accept defeat.  Against all odds, these communities and their supporters continue to demand justice and accountability for the crimes committed.

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