Bhopal is not yet at peace. Twenty-five years after the Union Carbide (UC) industrial disaster, thousands of people, especially children, are still embarked on a journey of sufferance and injustice that began on the night of December the 3rd, 1984. Half a million people were exposed to the 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) released from the plant, while all of the safety systems failed to work due to poor maintenance.

Thousands died in its wake.

In the consciousness of people the world over, Bhopal is associated with the haunting images of that night and the failures of industrialization in the developing world. Left unattended for the past 25 years, the toxic waste of UC, (now owned by Dow Chemical, the world’s second largest chemicals manufacturer) continues to penetrate the city’s underground water reservoirs every time the rain falls from the sky. An indelible curse, an ignoble crime, a self-perpetrating injustice against those defenceless children and their families who have been stripped of their right to dignity and happiness, whose need for water in order to survive has relentlessly poisoned their bodies, their minds, their lives.

Portfolio: alexmasi.co.uk

Archive: photoshelter.com/c/alexmasi

Blog: mmdocumentary.wordpress.com

Bhopal: mmdocumentary.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/bhopal-25-years-after-the-disaster-india/


In collaboration with: Neutopia Films neutopia.co.uk