Farm ministry calls for investigation into Illatos Road pollution

Budapest (MTI) – The farm ministry has called for a thorough investigation into the environmental pollution at a depot on Illatos Road in Budapest’s 9th district, to uncover the source of the contamination first reported in April this year.

The ministry told MTI that the assessment of the damage and environmental damage control could only begin once the hazardous waste has been removed from the site, adding that conclusions could only be drawn after the investigation is completed.

The ministry said the environmental pollution could have been caused by improper chemical usage or fodder illegally obtained by the former state chemical works privatised in 1993.

The ministry noted that the 1,005 barrels containing the most hazardous waste were removed from the site by May 31.

LMP

The green opposition LMP said it will take legal action to obtain a list of environmental risks similar to the one at Illatos Road. The party said it also wants to know what sort of damage control was being done to ease the risks. Lawmaker Benedek R. Sallai said Illatos Road was “but the tip if the iceberg,” adding that there were numerous similar “ticking time bombs” in Hungary.

Jobbik

The radical nationalist Jobbik party said it will initiate setting up a parliamentary investigation committee to look into the government’s environmental spending. Lawmaker Lajos Kepli said there were a number of polluted sites like the Illatos Road depot in Hungary, which he said indicated that public finances allocated for environmental damage control were not being spent properly.

In April, the government allocated more than 1 billion forints (EUR 3.3m) to help Budapest in organising the disposal of hazardous waste in the depot.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters