Five Past Midnight in Bhopal - Dominique Lapierre [38]
Nevertheless, the South Charleston team wanted to allay the visitor’s fears.
“The numerous safety systems with which this type of plant is equipped enable us to control any of the MIC’s potentially dangerous reactions,” the project leader assured him. “You have absolutely no need to worry. Your Bhopal plant will be as inoffensive as a chocolate factory.”
Other problems awaited the Argentinian on his return to India. His next priority was to find a site for the prospective factory. His superiors in New York and South Charleston had agreed upon the choice of Bhopal, which was already home to the Sevin formulation unit. But the new site would have to be completely different in size. The plant would be a hydra-headed monster. There would be the unit producing alpha naphthol, one for carbon oxide, one for phosgene and one for methyl isocyanate. Alongside these installations with their control rooms, works and hangars, the plant would also have a collection of administrative buildings, a canteen, an infirmary, a decontamination center and a fire station, as well as a whole string of surveillance posts. All together it would need at least one hundred and twenty acres and an infrastructure capable of supplying the enormous quantities of water and electricity that would be necessary.
The Kali Grounds met all these conditions. But the Argentinian was against the site. “I’d lost the battle over the size of the factory,” he would say. “But at least I could try and stop it being built too close to areas where people were living.” The officials of the Madhya Pradesh government rolled out the red carpet. The arrival of a multinational as prestigious as Union Carbide was an extraordinary godsend for the town and the region. It meant millions of dollars for the local economy and thousands of jobs. Ratna Nadar, along with all the other residents of the bustees, would be kept in work for years.
Together with Muñoz, the Carbide team who had come from New York examined several sites suggested by the authorities. None of them was really satisfactory. In one place the water supply was inadequate; in another the electricity was wanting; elsewhere the ground was not firm enough to bear the weight of construction. That was when the residents of Orya and its neighboring bustees witnessed cars mysteriously coming and going from the Kali Grounds. The vehicles frequently paused to let their occupants out. This activity went on for several days, then stopped. The envoys from New York had finally overcome Muñoz’s reservations. Of course the Kali Grounds, next to the formulation works, was the right place to build the plant. As for any risk to those living nearby if an accident were to occur, the New York envoys reassured Muñoz that his fears were totally unfounded.
“Eduardo, if this plant is built as it should be, there will be no danger,” declared the man in charge.
“Take New York, for example,” his assistant interjected. “Three airports surrounded by skyscrapers: La Guardia, JFK and Newark. Planes take off every minute and logically they should crash into the buildings whenever it’s the least bit foggy, or collide with one another.”
“And yet,” his boss went on, “New York’s airports are the safest in the world. It will be the same in Bhopal.”
Despite his doubts, Muñoz had little choice but to agree. He and his colleagues presented themselves at the Madhya Pradesh government offices to submit their request for a one hundred and twenty acre plot of land on the Kali Grounds. The piece of land in question had to adjoin the five acres of the formulation works. According to municipal planning regulations, no industry likely to give off toxic emissions could be set up on a site where the prevailing wind might carry effluents into densely populated areas. Such was the case with the Kali Grounds where the wind usually blew from north to south, in other words, into the bustees, the railway station and the over-populated parts