D-13 | Picture of the day

Suraj Rai, 10 years old

Suraj Rai is supported by his 8 years old brother, taller than him; he suffers from backwardness and growth retardation. Suraj cannot stand or walk because of his paralysed legs. He was born with brain damage. He cannot speak a word. Ramsiya, his mother, drank an unhealthy water all the while she was expecting him, and while she was nursing him.

Image: © Stéphane Bouillet

What the people of Atul Ayub Nagar didn’t know, because no one had told them, was that the ground on the other side of the factory wall, yards from their houses, was severely contaminated by toxins. A private Union Carbide memo (1989) never meant for publication, reports that samples of water taken inside the factory proved instantly fatal to fish. Fish died too, in water to which dry soil samples had been added.
The causes ? Naphthol (abdominal pain, convulsions, diarrhoea and vomiting) and naphthalene (anaemia, cataracts, retinal damage, liver and brain damage, possible cancer).