The emergency barrier which was being hastily erected over the weekend is almost complete and being tested. Earlier in the month, a red toxic sludge had spilled through cracks in an alumina reservoir in Hungary. The toxic spillage had killed eight and rendered 4 villages absolutely uninhabitable. Although the initial damage in the reservoir wall was repaired immediately, further cracks started appearing in the wall over the weekend. It was then decided that a three tiered wall would be constructed around the damaged wall.
The EU has been helping Hungary both in the construction of the wall and in studying the long term environmental damage caused.
Meanwhile the parliament in the capital town of Budapest has passed a bill for the state to take over the company which owns the alumina plant namely MAL. The CEO of the plant in question was detained for questioning. The Prime Minister Viktor Orban says that the catastrophe was a result of the company’s negligence and that they would have to bear the costs of the damage.
The sludge had emptied itself into the tributaries of Danube, which border 10 countries in Europe. All the flora and fauna of River Marcal, one of the tributaries of Danube has completely disappeared after the alumina waste sludge made the water extremely alkaline. Volunteers were working frantically in the initial few days emptying fertilizers and gypsum into the water in an attempt to neutralize the sludge.
Their efforts seem to have paid off as the sludge reached river Danube and the pH value of the water remained normal. This eased the fears of the Danube being polluted. Now the long term effect the toxic waste will have on the ground water and soil remains to be evaluated. Residents have been evacuated and have been warned against consuming anything grown on the polluted land.
