Hungary’s toxic sludge spill, which has killed four people, reached the Danube River yesterday, threatening to contaminate the waterway’s entire ecosystem, officials said.
“The red mud pollution has reached the Danube — its so-called Mosoni Branch, about 10km from the main branch of the river — this morning,” said Tibor Dobson, the local head of the disaster relief services. “At 09:27am, the pH level stood at 9.3. The experts are still measuring the pollution levels and the pH levels are descending.”
Water authority official Jozsef Toth told reporters earlier that samples taken at the confluence of the Raba River and the Danube showed “alkalinity slightly above normal, with a pH value of 8.96-9.07,” against a normal tally of 8.
On a scale of 1 to 14, pH values of 1 to 6 are acid, between 6 and 8 are neutral, and readings of 8 to 14 are alkaline.
A wave of toxic mud was unleashed on Monday from the reservoir of an alumina plant at Ajka, 160km west of Budapest. The red mud traveled down the Raba River and reached the Danube waters at around 06:30am GMT at Gyor.
The industrial accident triggered by the collapse of walls at the factory reservoir on Monday has been described as an ecological disaster and is now threatening the entire ecosystem of the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river.
Three adults and a child died when the tidal wave of mud smashed into surrounding villages on Monday. More than 120 people were injured, suffering from burns, and three people are still missing.
At two of the hardest-hit villages, Devecser and Kolontar, water samples from the river Torna, which flows into the Raba, showed pH levels of around 10 yesterday, but these were falling, Dobson said.
On Monday, after the accident happened, the reading was pH 13.5.
Dobson said neutralizing efforts, using acid and gypsum, were helping to bring the pH levels down.
Earlier yesterday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kolontar — where all four victims died — to see the extent of the destruction.
The mud — a residue from aluminum production, which is highly corrosive and contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic and chromium — destroyed all vegetation other than trees and seeped into hundreds of houses in villages.
Witnesses say the force of the wave was so strong that cars were sucked out from their garages and it tore out windows and doors, covering everything.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was