Hungary red sludge reservoir at risk of collapse, warns PM
Source: Agencies |
October 10, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE walls of a red sludge reservoir in Hungary were "very likely" going to collapse, the prime minister said yesterday as the government rushed to prevent another deluge like the one earlier this week that killed at least seven people.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the situation as "dramatic" and said the town of Kolontar, which sits next to the reservoir and was badly damaged in Monday's flood, was evacuated as a precaution because engineers have determined that the developing cracks could cause a whole side of the enormous container to collapse.
"Cracks have appeared on the northern wall of the reservoir which makes it very likely that the whole wall will collapse," Orban told reporters gathered at a fire station in Ajka, a city near Kolontar where many of its resident have been evacuated. "The wall is in very bad shape."
"We have started to build dams in the direction of the populated areas to slow the flow of the material in case of a new incident," Orban said.
The prime minister said experts had estimated that - depending on how dense the sludge was - an estimated 500,000 cubic meters more of red sludge could escape from the reservoir if the wall collapsed, but said exact figures were hard to calculate.
Orban said that amount would be about half the scale of the initial sludge flood.
"We have no exact information about the nature of the material because a catastrophe like this has never happened before anywhere."
He added that the incident could have been avoided and that "there was no information diminishing the responsibility" of human error as a causing factor.
In addition to the fatalities, more than 120 were injured when a corner of the metals plant reservoir gave way and up to 700,000 cubic meters of toxic waste flooded several towns in western Hungary. The amount was not much less in under an hour than the 757 million liters the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over months.
But the concentration of toxic heavy metals where Hungary's red sludge spill entered the Danube has dropped to the level allowed in drinking water, authorities said, easing fears that Europe's second longest river would be significantly polluted.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the situation as "dramatic" and said the town of Kolontar, which sits next to the reservoir and was badly damaged in Monday's flood, was evacuated as a precaution because engineers have determined that the developing cracks could cause a whole side of the enormous container to collapse.
"Cracks have appeared on the northern wall of the reservoir which makes it very likely that the whole wall will collapse," Orban told reporters gathered at a fire station in Ajka, a city near Kolontar where many of its resident have been evacuated. "The wall is in very bad shape."
"We have started to build dams in the direction of the populated areas to slow the flow of the material in case of a new incident," Orban said.
The prime minister said experts had estimated that - depending on how dense the sludge was - an estimated 500,000 cubic meters more of red sludge could escape from the reservoir if the wall collapsed, but said exact figures were hard to calculate.
Orban said that amount would be about half the scale of the initial sludge flood.
"We have no exact information about the nature of the material because a catastrophe like this has never happened before anywhere."
He added that the incident could have been avoided and that "there was no information diminishing the responsibility" of human error as a causing factor.
In addition to the fatalities, more than 120 were injured when a corner of the metals plant reservoir gave way and up to 700,000 cubic meters of toxic waste flooded several towns in western Hungary. The amount was not much less in under an hour than the 757 million liters the blown-out BP oil well gushed into the Gulf of Mexico over months.
But the concentration of toxic heavy metals where Hungary's red sludge spill entered the Danube has dropped to the level allowed in drinking water, authorities said, easing fears that Europe's second longest river would be significantly polluted.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
