Amanda Rivkin

Hungary Toxic Red Sludge

Amanda Rivkin in Hungary: Toxic Red Sludge

Bag News Notes

April 6, 2011

This week marks the first anniversary of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia which killed 29 coal miners. BagNews has been tracking mountaintop removal there with our series Dragline: Mountaintop Mining Watch. On the other side of the Atlantic, it has been six months since a similar accident with fatal consequences in Eastern Europe. Photographer Amanda Rivkin reports:

For sixty-three year old Geza Csenki, living in the small village of Devecser in western Hungary, last October 4 was the day the world folded. A torrent of toxic red sludge from a nearby industrial plant owned by MAL Zrt (Magyar Alumínium Termelő és Kereskedelmi) burst and flooded the town. Ten people died, including a 14-month old baby and hundreds were hurt and hospitalized. Csenki lost his home.

The collapse of the reservoir wall in Ajka wasn’t a freak accident nor was it an isolated incident. Remaining portions of the wall are not secure and while much of the sludge has emptied into the surrounding countryside, the rain and elements will determine how much more continues to leak out.

“I have a brother in North Carolina; I would have emigrated to join him had this happened 10 years ago, but now I have no idea what to do,” Csenki said between tears. Ironically, his troubles are compounded by the real possibility that he may have to close his children’s clothing store due to a lack of business – as donations to the community started arriving after the disaster.

The pace of life in the two villages at the base of the reservoir, Devecser and Kolontar, has not returned to anything resembling normal. It is a post-disaster sort of normal, with a portable soup kitchen in a military tent still providing sustenance every day for many families. Many people have been forced to live with family members or take up in abandoned buildings. Some live in their place of work.

Csenki’s organizing efforts to protest the government’s crisis management have been met so far with half measures. They have won some concessions, such as the right to remain in their village and avoid having it labeled a toxic wasteland, even though many houses remain covered in sludge. In turn, Csenki has vowed not to block the main road with demonstrators. He has become aware of his own power as a victim of the tragedy.

The government has also promised to build new homes by the middle of the next year for Csenki, his wife and others like them who survived the catastrophe. The battle for compensation continues and they wonder why they can’t be given money to rebuild themselves rather than rely on a system that has so wronged them.

The accident is part of a larger, looming problem concerning the state of post-Soviet industries in the region. Privatization during the early 1990s forced the regulatory burden from the state onto the private sector. So for the residents of Devecser and Ajka, unfulfilled promises to revise industrial inspection codes in the future bring little comfort.

Zoltan Bakonyi, the largest shareholder of MAL Zrt, was briefly arrested. He appeared on television to say the aluminum sludge might not be so harmful after all. His father Arpad Bakonyi was a key player in the privatization of the Hungarian aluminum industry.

“How can they say this?” asked Iren Istvanne Nemeth, 71, a survivor of the accident. Nemeth removed her shoes and socks and showed off burns and blisters that she said covered half of her body. Her son Istvan was killed.

Nemeth had been released from the hospital after six weeks. At the time of the disaster, she was forced to wade in the toxic sludge until emergency rescue workers arrived. Since the accident occurred during the middle of the day, it was mainly the shut-in elderly and those who lacked upstairs floors who had nowhere they could run to safety.

“I have had a difficult life,” Nemeth concluded, the same day she was supposed to move into a shelter for the displaced.

AJKA, HUNGARY. The rupture in the toxic red alumina sludge reservoir as seen from the top of a remaining piece of the reservoir's wall at the MAL plant on November 22, 2010, that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge pouring into the surrounding countryside, several villages including Kolontar and Devecser and resulted in the death of ten individuals, including a 14 months old baby, injured hundreds and left several families homeless.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Clean up crews work to hose down contaminated trees in the castle park that schoolchildren used to play in on November 20, 2010 in the aftermath of a toxic industrial accident on October 4, 2010 that resulted from a rupture in a reservoir containing toxic alumina sludge in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent hazardous red sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding towns, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Geza Csenki, 63, outside the entrance of his ruined and uninhabitable home on November 25, 2010, less than seven weeks after an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding villages, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless. Csenki's efforts to organize demonstrations on behalf of the survivors have been met with an extraordinary response by the authorities who have gone to great lengths to accommodate Csenki and the complaints he has brought forward on behalf of villagers in an effort to avoid official embarrassment.
     
  
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. A family portrait hangs in the contaminated home of Jozsef and Terez Szalai on November 20, 2010. Unlike other effected families, the Szalai family hopes to remain in their home as long as possible despite the devastation around them in the aftermath of a toxic industrial accident on October 4, 2010 that resulted from a rupture in a reservoir containing toxic alumina sludge in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent hazardous red sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding towns, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless.
  
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. A trail of towels still greets worshippers to the altar at the church during Sunday mass on November 21, 2010, less than two months after an industrial accident in nearby Ajka, Hungary sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gusing through Devecser and several surrounding villages, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. (Far right) Ilona Autal, 40, rubs cream on the legs of her son, (left) Peter Bogdan, 12, as her other children, (on sofa) Miriam Melitta Bogdan, 3, and (center) Renato Achilles Bogdan, 5, wake up and watch television before school in their living room on November 25, 2010. Peter was walking home when an industrial reservoir containing toxic red alumina sludge broke at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary and sent a torrent of the hazardous material gushing through the streets of Devecser and consequently has burns on his legs.
     
  
AJKA TOSOKBEREND, HUNGARY. Dora Jazmin Juhasz, 3, watches television as her father, Zoltan Juhasz, 33, sleeps in their temporary home on November 23, 2010; Dora's fourteen month old younger sister, Angyalka, was the youngest victim of an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary on October 4, 2010 which sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through their previous home in Devecser, Hungary. Zoltan has burns that cover 67% of his body due to the accident and despite nearly drowning in the sludge save for a single arm, Dora survived without injury.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Students at Geza Gardonyi Primary School wear protective face masks as they return from a walk on November 24, 2010 since clean up crews are still working very much around the clock in the aftermath of an industrial accident on October 4, 2010 at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding villages, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless when the wall of a reservoir containing the hazardous material collapsed.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Iren Istvanne Nemeth, 71, with her daughter, Erzebet Nemeth, 50, on the main street after purchasing sleeping pills at the pharmacy on November 22, 2010, a few days after being released from the hospital and the same day she began to move into the homeless shelter established by the church, "New Beginnings"; Istvanne Nemeth lost her son, Istvan, 52, and was left homeless in the wake of an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary on October 4, 2010, and has been staying with her daughter, Erzsebet, since then but says her daughter's extreme medical difficulties mean the solution must be a temporary one. Istvanne Nemeth said nightmares about the accident and losing her son made sleep impossible.
     
  
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. (L-r) Zsuzsa Riba, Gyorgy Janos Farkas, and Zsuzsa's son, Martin Riba, 6, return to the "New Beginnings" homeless shelter established by the church on November 22, 2010 after overseeing the unpacking of donated furniture from Germany into a storage shed behind the shelter. Hundreds were left homeless and injured and ten deaths resulted from an industrial accident on October 4, 2010 caused by a rupture in a reservoir containing toxic alumina sludge at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary; while many have found temporary accommodations, the church has assisted a few families and individuals who were without recourse or options in the aftermath of such a catastrophe.
   
ON THE M8 HIGHWAY BETWEEN AJKA TOSOKBEREND AND KOLONTAR, HUNGARY. A floodlight captures what is likely illegal toxic dumping into the river alongside the M8 highway on November 25, 2010 in the aftermath of an industrial accident in Ajka, Hungary that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing into villages and the surrounding countryside. While nobody would disclose what they were doing, they allowed for photos on the grounds that a foreign photographer could not ask questions.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Jozsef Szalai with the single rose plant salvaged from the garden of his family home on November 20, 2010 in a ruined section of Devecser in the aftermath of an industrial accident on October 4, 2010 that resulted from a rupture in a reservoir containing toxic alumina sludge in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent hazardous red sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding towns. Unlike other effected families, the Szalai family hopes to remain in their home as long as possible despite the devastation around them.
     
  
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Volunteers peel onions for lunchtime soup in a makeshift soup kitchen in a Hungarian military tent on November 27, 2010 where many residents of Devecser are guaranteed at least one meal a day in the aftermath of an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary resulting from a collapsed industrial reservoir wall that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through Devecser and other nearby towns, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. A young girl looks on as volunteers serve free lunch to residents of Devecser in a makeshift soup kitchen in a Hungarian military tent pitched beside the Geza Gardonyi Primary School on November 24, 2010, many of whom were left homeless and bereft of the only home they had and knew due to an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through the village and several surrounding villages, injuring hundreds, leaving several families homeless and killing ten.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. Jozsef Szalai pours a glass of whiskey for his wife, Terez, after dinner in their home on November 20, 2010 in a ruined section of Devecser in the aftermath of a toxic industrial accident on October 4, 2010 that resulted from a rupture in a reservoir containing toxic alumina sludge in nearby Ajka, Hungary that sent hazardous red sludge gushing through Devecser and several surrounding towns, killing ten, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless. Unlike other effected families, the Szalai family hopes to remain in their home as long as possible despite the devastation around them.
     
  
KOLONTAR, HUNGARY. Laszlo Retnager, 63, with his dog in the yard of his home on November 25, 2010 after visiting with volunteer psychologists from the organizations Helperek who have come to Kolontar in the aftermath of an industrial accident at the MAL plant in nearby Ajka, Hungary on October 4, 2010 that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through a section of Kolontar and several surrounding villages, killing ten, injuring hundreds, and leaving several families homeless. While many locals were initially resistant to their assistance given a deep aversion to a profession many thought was just to assist crazy people, many locals have warmed to their presence and welcome their guidance in a difficult time.
   
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. The feet of Laszlo Markos, 61, who was severely burned in an industrial accident resulting from a collapsed reservoir wall that sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through his home, in his makeshift residence where he lives with his wife on November 23, 2010. The elderly are particularly susceptible to the protracted pain of the burns due to the fact that many were unable to escape fast enough when the accident occurred and spent an hour or more wading in the toxic sludge.
  
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY. School children from the Geza Gardonyi Primary School in Devecser, Hungary view a video of aerial shots of the destruction in their village as part of an exhibition at the Hungarian National Museum on November 26, 2010 dedicated to the industrial accident that ruined many of their homes and which features their original artwork. On October 4, 2010, a ruptured industrial reservoir sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through their village, Devecser, and several surrounding villages, killing ten, injuring hundreds, and leaving several families homeless.
     
  
DEVECSER, HUNGARY. The younger Gyozo Bakonyi enters his parents home in an otherwise abandoned and condemned section of Devecser on November 21, 2010, after an industrial accident sent a torrent of toxic red alumina sludge gushing through Devecser and several nearby villages, killing ten, destroying homes, leaving several families homeless and severely injuring hundreds on October 4, 2010. Bakonyi survived the accident only to be injured during the clean up the day after; the red marks on the house indicate the height of the sludge at the time of the accident.
   
AJKA, HUNGARY. Disaster management workers inspect the cracks in the wall of the toxic red alumina sludge reservoir at the MAL plant on November 22, 2010, seven weeks after a rupture caused a torrent of the hazardous material to pour into the surrounding countryside and into several villages including Kolontar and Devecser, Hungary, killing ten, including a 14 month old baby, injuring hundreds and leaving several families homeless.
   
KOLONTAR, HUNGARY. Melinda Lehmann, 28, sits in her car outside her family's bar on November 22, 2010. An industrial accident in nearby Ajka, Hungary destroyed her family's home on October 4, 2010 when a flood of toxic red alumina sludge came gushing through her village, the closest to a collapsed reservoir wall that caused the accident, Hungary's worst ecological disaster.