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Cyanide Pollution: Australia Promises Technological Assistance
hd: Budapest, 14 March (MTI)
Australian Ambassador to Hungary Mark
Higgie, speaking at a press conference in north Hungarian Miskolc on
Tuesday, announced that his country intends to provide assistance to
Hungary to alleviate the damage to the ecology of the Tisza river from the
cyanide pollution which entered the waterway in Romania. Australia will
work towards the earliest possible rehabilitation of the river.
Higgie noted that the pollution flowed down the river into Hungary from
Romania, after a sump tank retaining wall broke at the AURUL
Romanian-Australian private mining company in February. The spill was then
carried down the length of the Tisza river, into the Danube and up to the
Black Sea, killing all wildlife in in its wake.
The ambassador said he had discussed the catastrophe with his government
and representatives of private businesses, and added that the Australian
public had been shocked by images of the destruction. The Australian
government acknowledges the seriousness of the tragedy, and will provide
all possible assistance to promote the rehabilitation of the Tisza river.
The assistance will principally be technical and technological.
Australia has a high standard of ecological technology, which can be put
to good use in mitigating the damage and rehabilitating the river. In
addition to the government, quite a few Australian private companies have
also offered to help, the ambassador said.
When asked about the sanctions it intends to impose against the AURUL
company, the ambassador said that his government cannot accept
responsibility for the deplorable actions of a private company, and that
sanctions written into international law would be dealing with that issue.
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Unfolding environmental disasters: 
The Tiszavirág (Palingenia longicauda) one of the many unique species exterminated by the Roumanian mine spills.