Cleanup Effort After TOXIC MUD Floods Devastate Villages

According to the following article, relief efforts aren't going well following the toxic mud floods from the burst reservoir in Hungary. Residents of the nearby towns and villages are finding it increasingly hard to cope with the damages. Five people were killed, at least 150 injured, and three people are still missing while several hundred more left homeless after the red tide crashed through their homes and gardens. 
    . . . June

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Villagers struggle with cleanup effort after toxic mud flood
The Observers:

Five days after one million cubic metres of toxic red sludge spilled out of a burst reservoir at an alumina plant in western Hungary, residents of the nearby towns and villages are finding it increasingly hard to cope with the damages.

Five people were killed and at least 150 injured in the resulting floods in seven villages around the Ajkai Timfoldgyar alumina plant, located 100 km west of Budapest. Three people are still missing and several hundred more left homeless after the red tide crashed through their homes and gardens.

The material, a residue of aluminium, is highly alkaline and slightly radioactive. Fears are growing that the pollution might spread to other European countries after it reached the Danube on Thursday. But on Friday officials said that alkalinity levels from the spill had subsided in the river and that there was no risk of a major environmental catastrophe across the region.

However, mercury, arsenic and chromium levels are still abnormally high in Kolontar and Devecser, the villages worst hit by the floods. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, visited Kolontar on Thursday and said there was no point in even removing the rubble from part of the village as it was impossible to live there again.

"The relief effort is not well organised"

Zsuzsa Halmay lives in Somlójenő, one of the villages in the area affected by the floods. She is a member of the Hungarian Green party, (Politics can be different - LMP), whose activists have been volunteering to help with the cleanup and relief efforts.

We are trying to organise ourselves to help people in the affected areas, but it is very difficult because the scale of the damage is so huge. We are working on two fronts: volunteering to clean and disinfect damaged property, as well as collecting money, food, cloths and goods to distribute to the flood victims.

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