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Nine years ago this month, thousands of people were killed and injured
in the chemical accident at Bhopal in India. The risk of new Bhopals is
increasing, says the UN, which wants to set up a 24-hour hotline to help
developing countries respond to such disasters.

The UN Centre for Urgent Environmental Assistance was set up ‘experimentally’
in Geneva in 1992, under the UN Environment Programme. At a meeting of government
delegates in Geneva late last month, the centre reported the results of
a survey of developing countries’ need for help in coping with chemical
accidents. Fifty countries said they would like help.

There are agencies to help with natural disasters, nuclear accidents
and oil spills, says Gerard Le Claire, a consultant who worked on the survey,
but ‘there is a gap when it comes to chemical accidents’.

Alain Clerc, head of UNCUEA, says the best and cheapest way would be
‘to provide a channel between countries that have the resources and expertise
to handle emergencies, and the countries that do not’.

There is already a hotline for natural disasters based at the Department
of Humanitarian Assistance in Geneva. Le Claire suggests that the UNCUEA
could supply ‘about five professional staff’ reachable 24 hours a day on
the DHA number. At last month’s meeting, governments agreed in principle,
but could not decide whether to go for this option or to base the hotline
within another UN organisation.

The number of chemical accidents in developing countries has been small
so far. But Marceil Yeater of UNCUEA says it will increase as developing
countries industrialise and more people live near hazardous installations.