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One Planet: Hungary's Toxic Spill

Factual: Science & Nature

Hungary's Toxic Spill

05/08/2011

BBC World Service - One Planet, Hungary's Toxic Spill

We visit western Hungary and find out how the area hit by toxic sludge is recovering

We visit western Hungary and find out how the area hit by toxic sludge is recovering.

The Hungarian government has met its self imposed deadline to re-house hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed by last year's "red sludge" disaster when 35 million cubic feet of toxic waste was released from an aluminium plant .  

Ten people were killed and hundreds injured, ten months on and the social and environmental consequences of that accident continue to be felt. 

This week on One Planet, we travel to the region, to drive through the forty square kilometres of land swamped by the sludge and meet some of the people trying to rebuild their lives. 

We hear how the arguments still continue over the cause of the leak and exactly who was responsible - with criminal and civil cases against the Aluminium company which owned the reservoir, MAL Zrt, still ongoing.  

So far the redevelopment programme has cost the government $150m - but the Minister of the Environment tells us that they hope to recoup that money from the company. 

We also meet the family who lost a baby as the sludge swept into their home, from the man responsible for the clean-up programme - which is still ongoing - and from the mayor of one of the town's affected, Devescar who tells us his plans for a new light industrial park specialising in renewable energy.

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