Floods could cause environmental nightmare in Europe

Ecologists are alarmed: the flood in the Czech republic is threatening to damage a factory that stores tons of dioxin-containing chemicals. This poison might quickly reach Germany through the Elbe.

The former chemical factory Spolana Neratovice is situated 25 kilometers to the north of Prague, right on the site where Vltava and Elbe rivers have their junction. The factory stores such poisonous substances as dioxin and quicksilver, the exact amount of which is not known.

Greenpeace says that the territory of the factory is one of the most polluted industrial areas in the whole world. The situation in Germany is not perfect either. There are major chemical enterprises in the east of the country, which also might be seriously damaged by the flood. Water is still flowing into the Elbe near Dresden, threatening to exceed the maximum level of 7.6 meters. This is the level of water that Dresden’s levees can handle. Experts say that the water in the Elbe river is expected to reach 8.5 meters today.

The environmental ministry of Dresden does not see any danger to the chemical enterprise. The Czech authorities informed that the water is some 100 meters away from the buildings of the factory. Nevertheless, it became known from unofficial sources that the Czech party falsified the information regarding the water level. Greenpeace believes that the official information is pure lies. A spokesman for Greenpeace said that their people could see water coming up to the factory. There are numerous barrels of dioxin wastes under a thick layer of concrete, the products of chemical poisons that were produced for military purposes. Several tons of poison were produced in the 1960s, during the production of Agent Orange poison.

Dioxin is one of the most dangerous poisons. It deteriorates the reproductive system and the immune system of a human being. There was an experiment conducted at Spolana Neratovice to find out the level of contamination. Several pigs were placed on the territory of the enterprise, and as Greenpeace reported, some of them died several days afterwards. The Animals died simply because of the polluted air.

Nature is playing its dangerous games in the south of Russia as well. Another storm is approaching the Black Sea coast of Russia. However, weather forcasters say that the storm might stay away from the coast. All rescue services are ready to the worst to happen. The previous storm in the south of Russia killed 58 people.

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov