EPA’s Eye in the Sky: Tiszacsege, Hungary

A picture taken with a drone shows a ferry on River Tisza at Tiszacsege, Hungary.

In the night of 30 January 2000, a dam at the gold mining company Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government, holding contaminated waters, burst and spilled 100,000 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water (containing an estimated 100 tons of cyanide).

The polluted waters spilled over farmlands and into the Somes river and reached the Tisza and then the Danube, killing large numbers of fish in Hungary, Serbia and Romania. The spill has been called the worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster. The Hungarian government on 16 July 2000 declared 01February as the memorial day of the Tisza wildlife.

Photo: EPA-EFE/ZSOLT CZEGLEDI