The Bhopal Tragedy Was Initiated by Use of a Hose

The front page and feature article of the Wall Street Journal in July 1988 explains the Union Carbide belief that a disenchanted worker initiated a one-minute plant modification with a hose. The article begins with these three paragraphs  

On a chilly winter night, a disgruntled worker at Union Carbide India Ltd. sneaks into a deserted area of its Bhopal pesticide plant where storage tanks hold thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical. [6] 

He removes a pressure gauge on one tank, attaches a water hose to the opening and turns on the faucet. Two hours after he steals away, a calamity he never foresaw begins unfolding. The tank rumbles. Vapors pass into a vent tower. A large cloud of poison gas drifts out into the night. 

Such a chain of events, Union Carbide Corp. believes, explains the gas leak that killed 2,500 people and injured thousands more in Bhopal on Dec. 2 and 3, 1984. The company insists that sabotage—not sloppy corporate practices in the Third World—caused what has been called the worst industrial disaster in history. [6] 

Other news coverage or investigative reports do acknowledge the fact that the presence of water in the system lead to runaway reactions. However, several other reports were not able to identify the precise route for the entry of water. 

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