‘ONE YEAR’ TO CLEAN TOXIC SPILL IN HUNGARY

HUNGARY TOXIC SLUDGE SPILL AN
‘ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE’ SAYS GOVERNMENT

www.bbc.co.uk - Yesterday, Hungary declared a state of emergency in three western counties after a dam holding back a vast reservoir of toxic red sludge, from an alumina plant, burst, killing four people and injuring 120 others. Six more are missing in what officials said was an “ecological catastrophe”. Emergency workers are trying to stop the spill, from an alumina plant, from flowing into major waterways, including the River Danube. At least seven villages and towns are affected including Devecser, where the torrent was 2m (6.5ft) deep. The flood swept cars from roads and damaged bridges and houses, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents. The sludge - a mixture of water and mining waste containing heavy metals - is considered hazardous, according to Hungary’s National Directorate General for Disaster Management (NDGDM). Bauxite, the raw material from which aluminium is processed, contains a mix of minerals, including aluminium, iron oxides and titanium dioxides.

The waste, known as red mud, is a mix of solid impurities, heavy metals such as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and the processing chemicals. The caustic mixture can burn skin on prolonged contact and is an environmental liability, difficult to store. While the cause of the deaths has not yet been officially established, the victims are thought to have drowned. Some 600,000-700,000 cubic metres (21m-24m cubic feet) of sludge escaped from the plant, 160km (100 miles) from the capital, Budapest, affecting an area of 40 sq km (15.4 sq miles). Environment Minister Zoltan Illes told the BBC the clean-up would take at least one year and probably require technical and financial assistance from the European Union.


Hungary says it will cost tens of millions of dollars and take at least a year to clean up the damage caused by this spill of industrial toxic red sludge, which damaged bridges and houses, swept cars from roads and it is considered “ecological catastrophe”. We need to live in harmony to nature and fully respect God's creation, otherwise we will suffer the consequences.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

All the great spiritual and religious traditions of the world warn us that we are answerable to God for all our actions. ... The Vedic texts therefore contain prescriptions and proscriptions to guide us in our actions. ... According to the International Society for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), there were three times as many great natural disasters in the 1990s as in the 1960s, while disaster costs increased more than nine-fold in the same period. The deaths from natural disasters have increased from 53,000 in 1990 to 83,000 in 2003. Therefore for the intelligent, the reality of karma is not difficult to see. We can never break the law; we can only break ourselves against the law. A stubborn fool who jumps from the top of a hundred-story building can imagine that there is no law of gravity ? but only till he hits the ground. Similarly we can go on with our godless sinful ways, imagining that there are no karmic laws ? but only till the karmic reactions hit us as tsunamis or terrorism or wars or ecological disasters or in some other way.

Śrīpad Caitanya Caran das (BE E&TC) :
“When Nature Boomerangs”
“The Spiritual Scientist” - Vol. 3 Issue 13.
Bhaktivedanta Academy for Culture and Education (BACE), Pune
http://thespiritualscientist.com/