Economy
Toxic sludge floods Hungarian villages, kills four
(Updates death toll)
Four people, including a child, were killed after several villages in western Hungary were flooded with a toxic red sludge. The waste product from the nearby alumina plant in Ajka broke through its containment reservoir on Monday afternoon and a flood - 6.5-foot high at places - swept through the area. The government has declared a state of emergency in three counties, and officials said this was an ecological disaster. About 120 people were injured, two critically and six seriously. Rescue workers are looking for six people who are missing.
Seven towns, including Devecser, Kolontár and Somlóvásárhely, were flooded by sludge rushing through a ruptured reservoir at a nearby plant. The red sludge, a waste product of alumina production in Ajka, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. So far, about 1 million cubic metres (over 35 million cubic feet) of sludge has leaked from the reservoir and affected an estimated area of 40 square kilometres (15.4 square miles), Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltán Illés told state news wire MTI. The sludge has also reached Tüskevár, Apácatorna and Kisberzseny.
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Unprecedented disaster
The red sludge is a highly alkaline material, which also contains toxic metals. It causes burns if contacting the skin and is especially dangerous if it comes into contact with the mucous membranes (eyes, mouth, ears, nostrils).
It is also radioactive, but due to its extremely low activity the risk of direct radiation is negligible. If it dries, however, the airborne dust can be toxic.
“I have never heard of a disaster of this magnitude at any of red sludge reservoirs either in Hungary or abroad," a chemical engineer and aluminium technician told local news portal Index.hu on Tuesday. He believes it will be a lengthy process to find out who made this fatal mistake at the reservoir - the planner, the constructor or the operator - and what specific events led up to this catastrophe. “One thing’s for sure, though. This should not have happened."The operation of Magyar Alumínium Zrt., the company that owns the sludge reservoir, has been suspended by the Environment Ministry, but it seeks to restart on the weekend, saying they have observed every regulation there is. The waste product is not as dangerous as they say and causes no lasting harm, the company argues. The damage caused is also much smaller than they currently estimate, officials of MAL said.
Illés said the sludge caused damages of up to HUF 10 billion. MAL Zrt. was insured for HUF 10 million, Aegon said in a statement.
Fatal incident, environment clean-up a must
According to the latest reports, four people have died in the flood in Kolontár. A woman, a man who went to rescue others when he was swept away in his SUV by the flood, an elderly woman of over 80 and one 14-month old child. (According to early reports, two children fell victim to the flood, a 3-year old and a 1-year old, but it turned out on Wednesday that the Juhász family lost the 14-month old Angyalka, while the 3-yr old Dóra "only" suffered injuries and was hospitalised. Her two other siblings were unharmed.)
According to the latest figures, some 400 houses were hit by the flood in Devecser, which is over 20% of the houses in that village. In Kolontár, about 20 of the 252 houses were swept away or made uninhabitable.
Click here for aerial shots of the flood.
And get more up close and personal here.
Without swift action and neutralisation of the red sludge the area will look like if it were on Mars, said Béla Farkas, head of environmental company Tatai Környezetvédelmi Zrt.
The environmental director said the toxic sludge will most likely wipe out all life on the upper region of the Marcal river. They are currently trying to restore the pH balance of the rivers there.
Farkas said the soil will also need to be replaced in the affected areas, at least the top 10-15 centimetres of it. He expects several hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of soil will need to be replaced. The sludge reservoir, the very cause of the incident, could take up that volume, he said. There are also other similar facilities currently full and out of use that may be used for that purpose after appropriate recultivation, he added.. The vegetation on the affected areas will also need to be replaced. Experts have not dared even to estimate the magnitude of the damage and the necessary salvage operations. “What’s certain is that this is an ecological disaster," Farkas said.
Further pictures of the flood are to be found here .
Four people, including a child, were killed after several villages in western Hungary were flooded with a toxic red sludge. The waste product from the nearby alumina plant in Ajka broke through its containment reservoir on Monday afternoon and a flood - 6.5-foot high at places - swept through the area. The government has declared a state of emergency in three counties, and officials said this was an ecological disaster. About 120 people were injured, two critically and six seriously. Rescue workers are looking for six people who are missing.
Seven towns, including Devecser, Kolontár and Somlóvásárhely, were flooded by sludge rushing through a ruptured reservoir at a nearby plant. The red sludge, a waste product of alumina production in Ajka, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. So far, about 1 million cubic metres (over 35 million cubic feet) of sludge has leaked from the reservoir and affected an estimated area of 40 square kilometres (15.4 square miles), Environmental Affairs State Secretary Zoltán Illés told state news wire MTI. The sludge has also reached Tüskevár, Apácatorna and Kisberzseny.
View Larger Map
Unprecedented disaster
The red sludge is a highly alkaline material, which also contains toxic metals. It causes burns if contacting the skin and is especially dangerous if it comes into contact with the mucous membranes (eyes, mouth, ears, nostrils).
It is also radioactive, but due to its extremely low activity the risk of direct radiation is negligible. If it dries, however, the airborne dust can be toxic.
“I have never heard of a disaster of this magnitude at any of red sludge reservoirs either in Hungary or abroad," a chemical engineer and aluminium technician told local news portal Index.hu on Tuesday. He believes it will be a lengthy process to find out who made this fatal mistake at the reservoir - the planner, the constructor or the operator - and what specific events led up to this catastrophe. “One thing’s for sure, though. This should not have happened."The operation of Magyar Alumínium Zrt., the company that owns the sludge reservoir, has been suspended by the Environment Ministry, but it seeks to restart on the weekend, saying they have observed every regulation there is. The waste product is not as dangerous as they say and causes no lasting harm, the company argues. The damage caused is also much smaller than they currently estimate, officials of MAL said.
Illés said the sludge caused damages of up to HUF 10 billion. MAL Zrt. was insured for HUF 10 million, Aegon said in a statement.
Fatal incident, environment clean-up a must
According to the latest reports, four people have died in the flood in Kolontár. A woman, a man who went to rescue others when he was swept away in his SUV by the flood, an elderly woman of over 80 and one 14-month old child. (According to early reports, two children fell victim to the flood, a 3-year old and a 1-year old, but it turned out on Wednesday that the Juhász family lost the 14-month old Angyalka, while the 3-yr old Dóra "only" suffered injuries and was hospitalised. Her two other siblings were unharmed.)
According to the latest figures, some 400 houses were hit by the flood in Devecser, which is over 20% of the houses in that village. In Kolontár, about 20 of the 252 houses were swept away or made uninhabitable.
Click here for aerial shots of the flood.
And get more up close and personal here.
Without swift action and neutralisation of the red sludge the area will look like if it were on Mars, said Béla Farkas, head of environmental company Tatai Környezetvédelmi Zrt.
The environmental director said the toxic sludge will most likely wipe out all life on the upper region of the Marcal river. They are currently trying to restore the pH balance of the rivers there.
Farkas said the soil will also need to be replaced in the affected areas, at least the top 10-15 centimetres of it. He expects several hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of soil will need to be replaced. The sludge reservoir, the very cause of the incident, could take up that volume, he said. There are also other similar facilities currently full and out of use that may be used for that purpose after appropriate recultivation, he added.. The vegetation on the affected areas will also need to be replaced. Experts have not dared even to estimate the magnitude of the damage and the necessary salvage operations. “What’s certain is that this is an ecological disaster," Farkas said.
Further pictures of the flood are to be found here .
