Hungary is a totally safe place to stay

Staying in Hungary is completely safe, experts reassure travellers to Budapest. The rupture of the red sludge reservoir in Hungary has caused a localised emergency situation afflicting three villages 160 km from the capital, Budapest. The dam burst poses no threat at all to anyone planning to travel to Budapest or stay elsewhere in Hungary.

The disaster triggered by a ruptured sludge reservoir near Ajka, a town situated 160 km from the capital, is localised in nature and has no damaging impact on areas located farther away. The most favoured tourist destinations, such as Budapest and Pécs, the Cultural Capital of Europe, are not affected by the dam burst in any manner. Visitors arriving in Hungary continue to have unlimited access to the entire tourism infrastructure, including airports, places of accommodation and other tourism service providers and attractions.

On 4 October, red sludge escaped from a containment pond of a privately owned alumina production company 160 km from Budapest. The ruptured dam caused severe damage in two settlements, killing 4 people and seriously injuring 12. The Hungarian Government took immediate measures to ensure the safety of the local population, and today clean-up and decontamination operations are underway along with efforts to reinforce the banks of the reservoir.

The sludge poses a direct health hazard to the local population only; consumption of locally grown food-products is not allowed. Outside the afflicted areas the disaster has no adverse health effects whatsoever. The Government launched an immediate investigation to detect the cause of the calamity; human error cannot be ruled out.

Mains water is under strict control and safe to consume in Budapest

We keep the water of the Danube, the section of the riverbank where drinking water wells are located, the wells and feeding points under strict, round-the-clock control with checks performed every two hours. We are installing equipment to take pH values continuously and measured data are monitored online by staff in our command centre. On the basis of our potable water security and water resource protection plans and activities we can guarantee that the water released into the system is always healthy.

Following the red sludge pollution near Ajka, the Waterworks of Budapest immediately contacted disaster prevention experts and water utilities operating in areas north of Budapest to obtain updated information on the potential impacts of the pollution upon the Danube.

Our professionals have taken all precautionary measures envisaged in our potable water security plans: we keep the water of the Danube, the section of the riverbank where drinking water wells are located, the wells and feeding points under strict round-the-clock control with checks performed every two hours. We are installing equipment to take pH values continuously and measured data are monitored online by staff in our command centre.

The municipal water supply system ensures that the supply of mains water in Budapest is secure. Water production wells use bank filtering technology, which is a slow purification process that removes pollutants from water at very high levels of efficiency. The water supply system is based strictly on bank filtration, no surface water is taken from the Danube, and we also have purification plants in Csepel and Rackeve in addition to bank filtration.

Also, wells lie substantially lower than the level of the Danube riverbed. As our capacity to produce drinking water surpasses the demand substantially, we also have the option to operate only the wells that are located the farthest away from the Danube until the pollution has moved completely downstream. At the same time, once the water of the Raba with pH above 7.5-8, the normal level of typical of the Danube, reaches this major stream where the rate of flow is 2600 m³ per second, it will get diluted considerably.

On the basis of our potable water security and water resource protection plans and activities we can guarantee that only healthy water is fed into the system."

Source: Budapest Tourism Office