Twenty-five years after the Union Carbide Industrial Disaster, many families in Bhopal are still living an injustice that began on December 3rd, 1984. Half a million people were exposed to the toxic gas released from the plant. Left buried for 25 years, the chemical waste of UC has penetrated the city's water reservoirs. Many children are now affected by severe disabilities, poisoned by the water they must drink. One last federal action in New York is seeking damages for injury and for the clean-up of water supplies. A victory could lead to improved standards in developing countries worldwide while forcing others to also review their activities.
Twenty-five years after the Union Carbide Industrial Disaster, many families in Bhopal are still living an injustice that began on December 3rd, 1984. Half a million people were exposed to the toxic gas released from the plant.
The deadly legacy of the gas-leak continues to affect not only those who survived but also their children, many of whom are now suffering from severe, degrading neurological and physical disorders due to the large-scale human and environmental contamination which continues unabated in the city.
Left buried in various spots near the industrial site for the past 25 years (on 3rd December 2009), the toxic waste penetrates the city’s underground water reservoirs every time it rains. 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 existence.
I strived to capture images reflecting the inner struggles of the second-generation of victims, children whose real despair can barely be imagined; images challenging the viewers’ emotions and empathy, images that cannot but call for support.
I wanted to project the viewer in front of the angelic beings I have carried in my arms, with whom I have played and shared extended periods of time, children that made me suffer deep inside, that made me reconsider what it means to be human.