Hungarians battle to hold back toxic sludge spill from Danube

Greenpeace describes incident as “one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years”

Helen Pidd

Hungary opened a criminal inquiry yesterday into the toxic sludge spill that killed at least four people after a reservoir burst at an aluminium plant.

As workers struggled to deal with the flood, the EU urged authorities to do everything they can to keep the slurry from reaching the Danube and affecting half a dozen other countries. Greenpeace yesterday described the spill as “one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years.”

Hundreds of people had to be evacuated after the gigantic sludge reservoir burst on Monday at a metals plant in Ajka, a town 100 miles southwest of Budapest, the capital. At least four people were killed, three are still missing and 120 were injured as the torrent flooded homes, swept away cars and disgorged 1m cubic metres (35m cubic feet) of toxic waste on to several nearby towns.

Local officials say 34 houses in the village of about 800 were too badly damaged to be refurbished. Soldiers, emergency workers and volunteers were trying to shovel out the mud yesterday, but the clean-up is expected to take months.

Last night workers were pouring 1,000 tonnes of plaster into the water to try to bind the sludge and keep it from flowing into the Danube, just 45 miles away. On Tuesday, experts said it would take the sludge about five days to reach the river, one of Europe’s key waterways. South of Hungary, it flows through Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova and Romania before emptying into the Black Sea.

The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said authorities were caught off-guard by the disaster because the reservoir had been inspected only two weeks earlier and no irregularities had been found. A criminal investigation has been opened, said police spokeswoman Monika Benyi.

The prime minister suggested someone would be held accountable for the disaster.

The Guardian, October 7, 2010

Task 11. Study the word list and be prepared to work with Audio Track 11.

to play down sth to bring sth under control

ups and downs alkaline levels

to dry out to turn into

relief workers fragile

plume tide

Task 12. Listen to the lead in Audio Track 11, get its idea and transcribe its lead.

Task 13. Listen to Audio Track 11 in full and:

- find all special terms, write them down;

- find epithets of the following words: a) sludge; b) ecology.

Write them down.

Task 14. Watch the lead of Video 31 to grasp its idea.

What does the sentence Toxic mud then spewed into nearby villages in Kolontar imply stylistically?

Translate the sentence into Russian trying to preserve its stylistic colouring.

Task 15. Take a look at the words in the box denoting the notion of toxic sludge. Say which of the words are emotionally charged? Prove your point.

slime spill leak spew sewage

Task 16. Watch Video 31 in full, get its idea.

Task 17. Fill in the gaps (fragments of Video 31 script). What stylistic means are used in the sentences below?

1. The …1… of sludge is …2…

2. Emergency workers are trying to …1-3… but this disaster is …4-5… .

3. Smaller waterways and streams have already been …1… by the toxic …2… .

4. It’d …… from the reservoir at an industrial plant…

5. Many of the small towns and the villages in its path are …1… in poisonous …2…

Task 18. How emotionally charged is the report in Video 31? Why is it so? Can you say the same about Audio Track 11?

Find several epithets to prove your point.

Task 19. What do you think makes the report in Video 31 so much emotional and appealing?

Task 20. Compare the information in the news article in Task 10, in Audio Track 11 and Video 31 highlighting the ecological disaster in Hungary. What conclusions do you come to? Fill in the grid below.

Mass media text / Contents	Similar facts	Difference: choice of words, stylistic devices
Press report
Television report
Radio report

Task 21. Make a sentence by sentence simultaneous translation of Audio Track 11 into Russian in class.