Cyanide poisons Europe's rivers - Brief Article

Europe's worst industrial disaster since Chernobyl raises corporate accountability issues.

The cyanide contamination of Europe's River Tisza has raised the issue of corporate accountability. For the gold mine at the centre of the accident is operated and half-owned by an Australian company, Esmerelda Exploration.

The accident, in which 100,000 cubic metres of cyanide-contaminated water burst from the factory's tailing ponds, has poisoned rivers throughout Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. In some places, cyanide contamination reached 700 times 'acceptable' safety levels. Ninety per cent of the fish and algae life in the Tisza has been killed, and the water to two million homes cut off. The accident has been declared the worst industrial disaster since Chernobyl.

The question is, who is to blame? Romania and Hungaria say the mine operators ignored repeated warnings about a possible spill. Esmerelda blames 'freak weather conditions'. Whatever the case, the issue raises the question of how accountable corporations are for the accidents that occur in foreign countries.

The Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, an accident on a similar scale, set a terrible precedent. At the time, Bhopal was the worst disaster in the history of the chemical industry. On the night of 3 December 1984, a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate gas escaped the Carbide pesticide plant, killing nearly 8,000 people and injuring a further 300,000. The Indian government sued the corporation for $3 billion in damages. But Carbide's team of heavyweight lawyers wrestled the settlement down to $470million, which shaved just 47 cents from Carbide's share price. Bhopal's victims, meanwhile, received, on average, $300 - a sum that barely covered their medical expenses.

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