It’s happening half a world away, but the situation in some ways echoes the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hungary is holding the company whose toxic sludge is flooding the country financially responsible for the damages. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday that he would freeze the assets of MAL, the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, and the company’s managing director was detained by the police.
You’ve no doubt been following the story; a 30-year-old reservoir gave way a week ago, spilling approximately a million cubic yards of sludge from the aluminum plant. Eight people have died and more than 100 have been injured, and towns along the sludge’s path—as well as those at risk from a possible new release—have been evacuated. Cracks have appeared in a wall that’s holding back another half-million or so cubic yards of sludge, and a dam to prevent another spill is under construction, possibly to be completed as early as Tuesday. A government spokesman said Monday, “We have 4,000 people and 300 machines working at the scene so we are doing our utmost to prevent another tragedy."
The company insists it has carried out regular inspections and performed routine maintenance on the reservoir, and that it has followed all regulations regarding its safety. An engineer familiar with the construction, however, has said it was inherently unstable because of soil structure.