Flooding unleashes toxic sludge in Hungary

Reservoir at alumina plant ruptures, triggering an environmental catastrophe that could reach the Raba and Danube rivers.

Tunde Erdelyi, left, saves her cat while Janos Kis walks in their yard flooded by toxic mud in the town of Devecser today.

DEVECSER, HUNGARY // Flooding from a ruptured reservoir of toxic red sludge in western Hungary killed at least three people yesterday.

Six people were missing and 120 were injured in what officials described as an ecological disaster. So far, about one million cubic metres of sludge has leaked from the reservoir at an alumina plant and affected an estimated area of 40 sq km, Zoltan Illes, the state secretary for environmental affairs, told state news wire MTI.

Mr Illes said the incident was an "ecological catastrophe". There are concerns that the sludge could reach the Raba and Danube rivers. The government yesterday suspended operations at MAL Zrt, which owns the reservoir and plant. The sludge, a waste product in aluminium production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. Many of the injured sustained burns as the sludge seeped through their clothes. Two of the injured were in a life-threatening condition. An elderly woman, a young man and a three-year-old child were killed in the flooding.

The chemical burns caused by the sludge could take days to reveal themselves and what might seem like superficial injuries could later cause damage to deeper tissue, Peter Jakabos, a doctor on duty at a hospital in Gyor where several of the injured were taken, said on state television. The government declared a state of emergency in three counties affected by the flooding. Several hundred tonnes of plaster were being poured into the Marcal River to bind the toxic sludge and prevent it from flowing on, the National Disaster Management Directorate said.

Seven towns, including Kolontal, Devecser and Somlovasarhely, were affected near the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in the town of Ajka, 160km south-west of Budapest, the capital. Yesterday morning, the sludge in Tunde Erdelyi's house in Devecser was still 1.5 metres high and rescue workers used an axe to cut through her living room door to let the red liquid flow out. "When I heard the rumble of the flood, all the time I had was to jump out the window and run to higher ground," said a tearful Ms Erdelyi.

She was still shocked by the events but grateful that she had been able to save a family rabbit and that her cat was found wet and shivering in the attic. Robert Kis, Ms Erdelyi's husband, said his uncle had been taken to Budapest, the capital, by helicopter after the sludge "burned him to the bone". The flood overturned Ms Erdelyi's car and pushed it 30 metres to the back of the garden while her husband's van was lifted on to a fence.

"We still have some copper in the garage that we could sell to make a living for a while," Mr Kis said as he attempted to appraise the damage to his house and belongings. Ms Erdelyi, a seamstress, said she was hoping the flood spared the shop in town where she worked, her family's main source of income. The disaster agency said 390 residents had to be temporarily relocated and 110 were rescued from the flooded towns, where firefighters and soldiers were carrying out clean-up tasks.

Local environmentalists said that for years they had been calling the government's attention to the risks of red sludge, which in a 2003 report they estimated at 30 million tonnes. "Accumulated during decades … red sludge is, by volume, the largest amount of toxic waste in Hungary," the Clear Air Action Group said, adding that the production of one tonne of alumina resulted in two tonnes of toxic waste.

* AP