Greenpeace activists blockaded a chlorine factory near Johannesburg today claiming it belonged to the company responsible for the worst industrial accident in history.
A dozen activists blocked the entrance to the Chloorkop factory 15 miles north of Johannesburg as part of Greenpeace’s campaign of protests at the Earth Summit. They hung a green banner across the entrance, with the message: "Do not repeat Bhopal, clean up Africa now".
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Greenpeace spokesman Mr Brad Smith said the Chloorkop plant was owned by Dow Chemicals, an international company that merged with Union Carbide in February 2001.
An estimated 3,500 to 7,500 people were killed and more than half a million seriously injured when toxic gas leaked from a chemical factory in Bhopal owned by the US company Union Carbide on the night of December 3rd, 1984.
The environmental group also said the Chloorkop plant was pumping pollutants into the drinking water supply of the nearby Thembisa township.
Indian activist Mr Satinath Sarangi from the National Campaign for Justice in Bhopal said: "What they were doing in Bhopal should not be happening anywhere else in the world. This has to be stopped".
Last week 12 Greenpeace activists were arrested after staging a protest at Africa's only nuclear plant, the Koeberg station outside Cape Town. They are due to appear in court tomorrow.
AFP