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Hungary: Danube at risk of pollution
Three months after toxic red sludge devastated the Hungarian countryside, environmentalists find proof of continuing pollution
Europe’s second-longest river is under serious threat from pollution, according to Greenpeace Hungary. Recent analysis of the discharge waters of the Ajka aluminium production plant which last year made headlines when one of its reservoirs burst, killing seven people and polluting nearby villages with toxic red sludge, were found to have worrying levels of toxic pollutants.
“The EU Commission has to intervene with the Hungarian government immediately to stop this threat to humans, animals and nature,” said Greenpeace campaigner Balazs Tomori, adding that the situation was particularly dangerous because of the vicinity of the plant to the Danube. In fact, the discharge waters feed into the River Torna, a tributary of the Danube only 45 km away.
Two independent labs – Balint Analitika in Budapest and Vienna’s Environmental Protection Agency – analysed six water samples collected by Greenpeace at the end of January and found all to contain worrying levels of arsenic (1,300 micrograms per litre; Austria’s safe limit is set to 100 micrograms) and aluminium (100 times over the legal limit).
