EU environment experts arrive in Hungary

Hungary said it hopes to finish building an emergency dam by Tuesday to hold back a reservoir of toxic sludge after a breach of the original retaining wall caused a deadly flood of industrial waste.

About one million cubic metres of red mud, a by-product of alumina production, leaked out of an alumina plant reservoir into villages and waterways in western Hungary last Monday, killing at least seven people, injuring at least 123 others and fouling rivers including a local branch of the Danube.

A team of EU environment experts today arrived in the area to provide assistance to authorities in dealing with the disaster and to assess further risks.

“We cannot be exactly sure when the second dam will fall,” environmental chemist with the Clean Air Action Group, Gergely Simon told Vatican Radio, “it could be one day or even two weeks.”

“We still don’t know the exact composition of the mud. The Hungarian Academy of Science has said that there is no toxic metals in the mud, but Greenpeace did find arsenic, cadmium and mercury above the limit values. So hopefully today we get a clearer picture from the Academy.”