Grace Morton
Hungary
Spring 2013
EcoEd Secondary School Research Program
HUNGARY
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a little smaller than the state
of Indiana. Its total area is 93,028 square kilometers. (CIA) Its capital is Budapest, which
is separated into two sections, Buda and Pest, the border being the river Danube.
(Pere) Budapest is seen as a beautiful travel destination, but the air and water are
highly polluted, as with most major cities in Hungary. The population of Hungary is
9,958,453, as of July 2012. (CIA)The people are relatively healthy, and only 6 in 1,000
children under five years old are underweight. 68% of the population lives in urban
areas. 99.2% of males are literate and 98.9% of females are literate. The climate is
similar to that of the United States, with cold, cloudy winters and warm, humid summers.
The terrain is mostly flat, with low mountains near the Slovakian border. (UNDP) The
government is a parliamentary democracy, (CIA) and there is a serious public debt
issue. (SA2) Their leader is a Prime Minister, Viktor Orbin. (CIA) Hungary has several
large sources of water, including the River Danube, which is the second longest river in
Central Europe, the River Tisza, and Lake Balaton, which is the largest lake in Central
Europe. The main environmental problems in Hungary are soil, air and water pollution,
and they are very serious. These problems have developed, been made known to the
public, and, now, need badly to be fixed.
WATER
One of the largest environmental issues in Hungary is water pollution. This is a
big problem in Hungary’s large rivers and lakes. These include the rivers Danube,
Tisza and Raba, and Lake Balaton. The Danube is the second largest river in Central
Europe and the Tisza and Raba are its longest tributaries. Lake Balaton is the single
largest lake in central Europe, and all of these are major travel destinations. The
consequence of this tourism is that they are very vulnerable to pollution. This pollution
is happening because of all of the people swimming in and driving and building factories
around these rivers and lakes. The Danube has several major cities along it, including
Hungary’s capital, Budapest. The Tisza and the Raba get a lot of pollution from
tourism, too, which eventually will all reach the Danube. In 2000, once in January and
once in March, several tailings ponds(Ponds formed from waste of the process
separating ore from invaluable rock) in Romania burst into a tributary of the river Tisza,
which then flowed into the Tisza, and eventually into the Danube. (LA5) Any pollution in
a seemingly insignificant stream could flow into a river that is a tributary of the second
largest river of Europe. Lake Balaton, being the largest lake in Central Europe, is
definitely a major tourist attraction, and therefore is vulnerable to pollution. (SA4) The
pollution in Lake Balaton is particularly dangerous because people swim in it, so if there
is enough pollution and a person swims in the lake enough, that person could become
sick. Water is not the only thin being polluted in Hungary, though.
AIR
Another major source of environmental instability in Hungary is air pollution. It
comes mainly from traffic and industry, and a large
percentage of the greenhouse gas is sulfur dioxide.
In the past few decades, levels of sulfur dioxide
have gone down significantly, but it is still a
problem. The pollution is mainly around cities with
lots of industry. In 2010, a plastic processing plant
(LA4)
Near Budapest erupted in a “fire tornado.” This was caused by extreme temperatures
mixed with high wind speeds, and the flames took the shape of a tornado. This caused
a huge release of fumes into the atmosphere, and this is just one example of
environmental catastrophes. (SA4) This doesn’t majorly affect the people of Hungary,
but if the problem persists, it may start to cause breathing issues. Another thing that air
pollution causes is acid rain. Acid rain happens because sulfur dioxide gets into the
rainclouds. This can result in Soil pollution because of acidic runoff. (LA6)
SOIL
One of the smaller but still important environmental problems in Hungary is soil
pollution. Soil is polluted by acidic runoff and other things spilled into the soil.
The
Acidic runoff is from acid rain, which is a result of high levels of sulfur dioxide in the
atmosphere, which is a problem in Hungary. Luckily, as the levels of sulfur dioxide
decrease, so will the acid rain, acidic runoff. It takes a lot of research to know how soil
is being polluted. Though it does not affect humans directly, when soil is polluted, it can
cause damage to plants growing in it and small animals that live in the soil such as
chipmunks, worms, and toads. Humans can be affected because of the acid rain itself,
and because of clean (non- acidic) runoff being contaminated by the soil, or eating
plants contaminated by the soil. Although we may not be very aware of this issue, we
need to pay attention to it because it can impact us indirectly. (LA6)
SLUDGE
In 2010, Hungry experienced what is called their largest environmental disaster
ever. Near the town of Kolontar, the dam to a reservoir full of toxic red sludge-waste
from a nearby alumina plant- collapsed, and flooded many towns, including Kolontar,
and Devecser. It took several years to clean up, and ended with only 10 human deaths,
but hundreds with chemical burns and
many more left homeless. Lots of
animals were killed, and the roads
were stained red. The sludge was, in
some places, up to the height of adult
men. A church in Kolontar was picked up by the flow of sludge and moved from the
middle of town to the outskirts of it. This is an issue with waste management, mainly by
industry. Since Hungary is a relatively small country, there is not a lot of space to put
landfills or store waste. (LA2) Some of the sludge spilled into the nearby Danube, and
turned its famously blue waters red for a while. Lots of people were badly damaged,
even if they only lost a home or a pet, but the tolls on the community must have been
really hard. Even though this never resulted in a lot of human death, it was still
considered the biggest environmental disaster in Hungarian history. (SA1) The
company responsible is Hungarian Aluminum, which in the Hungarian language
translates to something that has an acronym of MAL. MAL offered many sincere
apologies, but denies any wrongdoing on their part. They blame the dam to the
reservoir. (LA2)
TRANSITION
There are a lot of environmental problems in Hungary. As with any problems,
they have to be fixed. They are being fixed, by the Hungarian government and more
private organizations.
THE CLEAN AIR ACTION GROUP
The leading environmental conservation organization in Hungary is the Clean Air
Action Group. They are monitoring air pollution and cleaning air in and around cities.
Also, more and more Hungarians are becoming aware of the air pollution, and trying to
do something about it. Because of the immense amounts of pollution from traffic, lots of
people are starting to use bicycles instead of cars. (M2)
BICYCLING
Bicycles are great way to reduce traffic pollution. Since there is a lot of tourism in
the cities of Hungary, the cities could encourage tourists to rent bicycles instead of cars.
Bicycles pollute nothing, and it’s healthier to use bicycles than sit round in cars. In
March 2013 one Hungarian city started a bike sharing program. The program stations
seventy or eighty bicycles in twelve or thirteen stations around the city. It is mainly
intended for tourists, but locals can use it, too. The bikes can be rented for several
hours, or a day, and if they use rent more than eight different bikes in one day, hey pay
the price of renting one for one day. It is to keep tourists from polluting the atmosphere
by renting bikes instead of cars.(LA3) Another aspect that may help reduce pollution is
the fact that the population of Hungary is going down. This is because currently, the
death rate in Hungary is higher than the birth rate. The decrease in population is so
gradual that nobody is worried about what will happen, because it is staying nearly the
same. (CIA)
ENERGIA KLUB
Energia Klub is the Hungarian name of the strategy that the
Hungarian government wants to use to switch the country off of nuclear energy
and fossil fuels and onto renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal,
and biomass. The strategy is planned to be completed by the year 2050. This
will significantly decrease air pollution. Also, it will keep Hungary out of a crisis
when the world runs out of fossil fuels, and keep the country away from the one
resource that they do not want to use at all- nuclear energy. (LA4)
AS FOR SOIL
Soil pollution levels are going down. This is because soil pollution can be
traced to industrial pollution. Industry pollutes the atmosphere with sulfur
dioxide. High levels of sulfur dioxide can and will cause acid rain. With acid rain
comes acid runoff, and with acid runoff running all over the soil, the soil will soak
up some water and with it, sulfur dioxide. This pollutes the soil with everything
growing and living in it. As stated in the beginning of this paragraph, the
industrial pollution roots mean that the soil pollution levels are decreasing. This
is because the levels of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere around Hungary are
going down.
What Happened to the
toxic red sludge?
The toxic sludge disaster was considered the worst environmental
catastrophe in Hungarian history. This says a lot. The sludge took a little over a
year to clean up. It was taken away by thousands of trucks, and not any
websites are willing to give any clues as to where the sludge was eventually
taken. The towns, Kolontar and Devecser, were stained red- the streets, the
bottoms of walls, entire houses uninhabitable because of the sludge. MAL took
no blame, but gave sincere apologies, as it was their fault that the reservoir was
there, but it was not their fault that the dam collapsed. The sludge is gone now,
but the towns will never be fixed. There is no long- term solution to this. Unlike
water, air and soil pollution, this is a problem that will go away, but nothing will
ever be forgotten about. (LA6)
PROTET LAKE BALATON
EEA and Norway grants have supplied €1,600,000 to Hungary’s government to
clean up the environment around Lake Balaton. Hungary had been neglecting the
pollution problems, so Norway stepped in and bribed them to clean it up. It worked.
Hungary established several programs to help monitor and reduce effects of pollution in
and around their famed lake, including the Lake Balaton Development Coordination
Agency. (SA4)
CONCLUSION
Hungary has lots of environmental pollution problems, and since lots of people
know about all of them, more people are trying to fix them. The country has several
programs, like the Clean Air Action Group, that are trying to solve air pollution problems.
EEA and Norway grants have given Hungary several million Euros to get rid of some
pollution in areas around Lake Balaton. (SA4) “Energia Klub”, a government-run
organization, has come up with a strategy to start using resources like solar energy
instead of fossil fuels and completely switch over to more sustainable energy by 2050.
(LA4)