UPDATE: Toxic sludge spill from Hungary has reached the Danube

The Hungarian government has instituted a state of emergency on Tuesday morning in three counties in western Hungary due to floods generated by chemical waste leaking from a damaged tank, belonging to MAL, a local alumina plant, reports news wire Mediafax. However, the Romanian Ministry of Environment and Forests has stated that there is no danger for the floods to reach the Danube, on Romanian territory, in the following 24 hours.

Officials from the Hungarian company producing and merchandising aluminum owning the damaged tank, Mal Zrt, have stated that repair works have been started at the accident location, in order to prevent any other leaks. According to Mediafax, the officials have also made it clear that 96 – 98 percent of the chemical substances are still in the tank. An estimate of 700,000 cubic meters of chemical residue were spilled on Monday from the broken reservoir.

Mal Zrt representatives have declared that the leaked chemical residues are not considered toxic and are not soluble in water, abiding by EU norms. However, over 100 people were injured in the flood, and four died, as Mediafax states. The current danger is that the pollution may eventually reach Moson river, tributary to the Danube, thus spreading in all the countries through which the river flows.

The state of emergency in Hungary has been decreed in Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties, where hundreds of people have evacuated after the disaster. According to Reuters, the Hungarian Government has suspended production at MAL Zrt, giving instructions for the firm to repair the damaged reservoir.

UPDATE: The toxic mud from Hungary has reached the Danube on October 7, threatening Europe’s second largest river’s ecosystem. The Romanian Ministry of Environment has however issued an official statement announcing that the decontamination measures taken by Hungary have lowered the PH levels of Marcal river, tributary to the Danube, now reaching an indicator with presumably no impact on the Danube’s flora and the fauna. On the Romanian side of the Danube, pollution levels are constantly measured and the results currently show no danger, as the river’s flow seems to be high enough so as to ensure the water’s dilution capacity.