The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has said that toxic mining disasters and industrial accidents are waiting to happen in Eastern Europe. Especially as after a year since the toxic mud spill in Hungary the European Union has been unable to pass any related legislation.
Gabor Figeczky, the head of WWF in Hungary said that the country has let its presidency of the EU pass without taking any action to defuse further ticking time bombs in Central and Eastern Europe. The EU directive which was introduced in 2006 is in principle good, but must now be effectively implemented, he added.
Due to a gigantic sludge reservoir banks’ bursting on October 4, 2010 at a plant in Ajka, Veszprém County, in western Hungary ten people were killed. Hungarian government had fined the company 470 million Euros for the accident which saw 1.1 million cubic meters of toxic red mud entering the villages close by.
On the anniversary of that occasion the WWF said that little had been done to prevent further such catastrophes from occurring at other toxic waste sites in the region. Greenpeace staged a protest against the storage of dangerous substances at another red mud reservoir in Hungary last week. They were demanding its immediate closure.