A wave of toxic sludge from an aluminium plant in southwestern Hungary swept through three towns killing four people, 5 October. The Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in three districts including the towns of  Kolontar, Somlovasarhely and Devecser.

A dam broke in a nearby aluminium refinery and an estimated 1.1 million cubic metres of waste sludge flooded the towns, covering an area of  40 square km. Authorities say cleanup will take at least a year and cost millions of dollars.

Officials said 120 persons were injured, and six people are still missing.

Kolontar is less than 40km from Hungary’s main summer resort, Lake Balaton.

Links to other sites:BBC, New York Times, NZZ (Ger), Romandie News

Source: Russia Today

Posted by Sean Ecker on 6 October 2010 at 8:14 | permalink
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News story, GenevaLunch, 6 October 2010.

Filed under: News, World news

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  1. GenevaLunch » WWF Hungary says sludge disaster should have been avoided, villagers evacuated Says:
    October 11th, 2010 at 7:59 am

    [...] Background story [...]

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This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.