Bernadett Szabo/Reuters A resident of Devecser, Hungary begins cleanup after red sludge flooded the town.
BUDAPEST — Zoltan Bakonyi , the managing director of MAL Zrt, the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent on three villages last week was arrested on Monday October 11.
He will be charged with criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe. If he is convicted, he will face a sentence of up to 10 years, according to a government spokeswoman.
A week ago, nearly 200 million gallons of toxic red mud — a byproduct of the conversion of bauxite to alumina, for aluminum — poured out of a reservoir, killed eight people and injured hundreds more.
Updating Parliament on the government’s response, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "A new emergency law will be enacted to bring MAL Zrt under state control. A state commissioner will be appointed to manage the company and its assets. The government will also focus on saving jobs and identifying other risky industrial sites"
Some observers accused the government of using the catastrophe as a pretext to renationalize private industry and rule by decree. MAL Zrt was owned by the state during Communist times, before it was taken over by private investors after Communism fell in 1989.
Gyorgyi Tottos, spokeswoman for Hungary's Catastrophe Protection Unit, said “I have just returned from the site and there are three gaps in the wall that are a half-meter wide and 20 meters long, which suggests that the wall will fall over time. But we are building a concrete barrier and an emergency dam. We hope that the effects of the wall collapsing will be less dramatic than last time.”
Peter Szijjarto, the prime minister’s spokesman, told the broadcaster TV2 "The dam will be finished by Tuesday. We have 4,000 people and 300 machines working at the scene so we are doing our utmost to prevent another tragedy.”
The government held a special meeting on Sunday to analyze the consequences of the disaster.
Analysts said Mr. Orban’s center-right government, elected earlier this year, was gaining popularity because the devastating rupture had inspired national unity and served to distract the country from its economic worries. They said Mr. Orban moved quickly to take control of the situation and is fashioning himself as a Hungarian protector.
