THERE has just been an incident in Hungary where a toxic heavy metal sludge dam burst after a rainstorm. This dam was created to act as waste water reservoir for an aluminum production plant.

The toxic heavy metals ran into the Danube and have contaminated the river. Damage for people and ecosystem for five downstream countries is being assessed.

Before running into the river, the dam killed dozens in a village along the way.

A similar dam exists in Saindak, Balochistan, where a mud reservoir on a Saindak river bed is waiting for a disaster.

This toxic slush has been made by the processing of copper and gold in Saindak. The water is untreated and so poisonous that not a single blade of grass grows around this huge dam.

And yes there is a 1,000-people abode called Amolaf just a few hundred metres away. Pakistan EPA visits the plant on a perfunctory mission and comes back without a whimper on the existence of this toxic slush mud reservoir and the highly poisonous sulphur-dioxide being released in the air untreated and unfiltered through the smelter stack.

Will someone take notice before it is too late for hundreds of poor people and a fragile environment of the region.

ASAD JANJUA
Chaklala