Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-04-01 / 8. szám
500 Miles 500 Tons Years of DEATH nCATU yen I n Tragic. Veiy tragic. The tragedy of the Hungarian rivet, the Tisza, caused bv an unfortunate industrial spill, is very personal for me. My parents lived along this river and it was a favorite place for me as a youth, also to my school mates during the summervacation. Eveiy morning when we weren’t put to some kind of work at home, we mounted our bycicles and headed to the river Some pots and pans were dangling ard clanging on the harxlle bars. Mothers, as usual made sure that we wouldn’t miss out on nourishments. On the river bank with youthful congeniality we had a stove set up for the season It was built of mud-bricks that we made, complete with a chimney. The only part we had to bring from home was a metal plate to make the top of the stove. Besides playing ball and swimming, we set out to explore whatever was there. The meandering river here and there washed the embankment exposing life of many previous thousands of years. We collected stoneage tools, scrapers, axes, arrowheads, also pottery pieces that were used by the first Hungarian settlers. Most of these from us found their way to the museum. I kept the head of an ax This I never left out of my possession I brought it to America, too. I witnessed many faces of nature on the river One was the “tiszavirág” - “the flower of the Tisza”. This is a special insect whose larvae live in the ground for three years and then turn into flying insects. These cover the surface of the water flying in huge numbers aid veiy tow. They were mating. Every year mostly dunng the three year cycle, we sat there and watched this unbelievable mating It lasted only 2-3 hours. It was an amazing short life We loved waiting forthe the huge rafts made for the timber that they were transporting down the river. We took advantage of these; riding on them ard jumping into the water. When the winter vacation came marty times we had a problem Not every year was the river frozen over for our winter vacation At times, due to the rise of the water level, the ice was broken up floating down in large slabs. It was vacation time! We had to get home, and this meant that we had to cross the Tisza We did it on a flat bottom boat that could hold four people. Now ard then this venture became hair raising but we always made it Along the Tisza, down to Szolnok and Szeged ore could stop anywhere and have a delicious “halászlé” a fish chowder An other choice was the breaded harcsa, or in the spring the kecsege that was curled up on the plate. Well, - this will be put off for a few coming years. Let us talk about the tragedy. In January at Baia Mare (Nagybánya) in Romania, an Australian- Romanian company was extracting gold ard silver with a chemical process that uses cyanide. Because of wet weather conditions the area secured with dams, containing industrial water flowed overthe dams and poured overa 100,000 cubic yards of poisonous water into the Szamos river and from there into the Tisza The conlam-Page 3 ination reached 400 times the permitted level. At Tiszátok the concentration was measured at 3.7 mg per liter (about a quart). The norm would be 0.1. The situation became very dangerous and demanded instant attention. Let us do some geography. The length of the Tisza is 610 miles. This is measured from the origin to Titel where it flows into the Danube. The affected length, as far as I could figure out is about 500 miles. It is a distance life traveling from Connecticut to Cleveland Out of this, 375 miles are on Hungarian territory. This part affects rtty memories. Our craving for the halászlé would have been put aside for a few years. The dead fish in the Hungarian Tisza amounted to about 500 tons. Lot of food There were about 200 fishermen put out of business, fortunately the Hungarian government is hying to compensate them. The real situation is a lot more serious. The river water connects to the wells along its bank. The wild animals will drink from the river and suffer the consequences. The lethal ions of tire heavy metals that also were part of the spill will sit on the bottom of the river. Who knows how long? Could the population avoid the bad effect? Could it be organized efficiently? Hopefully the international community will help to solve if As far as I know, the United States gave a helping hand and offered $50,000 to be split equally between Hungary' and Romania Up to now there is nothing said about the tower part of the Tisza nor about the Danube and Serbia The Tisza now is a dead river and they estimate that it will take 5 years to have it back to some level of nonnalcy. Hopefully the spring thaw will be gentle and not push the contaminated water over tie river’s embankment The water level hasn’t risen yet to the upper parts of the embankment so researches are happy to find some life that survived There the tiszavirág larvae are still untouched It is symbolic to say that with these insects the Tisza will blossom again. Joseph F. Balogh MAP OF THE WATERWAYS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN
