What can the Responsible Vacation Industry do For Hungary?

Much continues to change in Hungary, and the responsibility of public awareness falls on the shoulders of the responsible vacation industry. As I reported in an earlier post, the media has made itself clear by doing nothing at all. Scroll to the bottom of any news website, squint with all of your eye's might, and there you will find a tidbit of information about the worst natural disaster in Hungary's history. You will finally get a dose of information about the seemingly sci-fi thriller turned reality that has killed at least nine people to date, and has wounded dozens of others. Entire villages are saturated with the red sludge that most scientists compare to lye. This situation is running the gamut from bad to worse, and the responsible vacation industry cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.

Where can the responsible vacation industry start with bringing awareness to the decrepit environmental and societal conditions in the effected Hungarian villages? A great place to start using responsible vacation to raise awareness about the dire conditions is to highlight the fact that villagers have already started returning to their villages. This is not a welcomed homecoming. Most of these villages are still deemed as unsafe and vulnerable to additional toxic sludge floods. Well, how could that be? A company responsible for the worst environmental disaster in a country should have the situation under control and shouldn't even be in production, right? Wrong. The need for publicity from the responsible vacation industry is to bring atrocities like the fact that this plant is alive and well to the forefront for the international community. A spokesperson for Gyorgy Bakondi, the metal plant responsible for this environmental assault, claims that plant operations have resumed for preparatory purposes.

While the company has installed a glorified earth retention wall to prevent additional spills, little scientific data supports the assertion that this wall will protect the villagers. The bus loads of people returning to this battle ground is disheartening for environmental officials since little is known about the exact cause of the catastrophic floods to begin with, and certainly not enough is known about the on-going threat of another spill. The scientific data, or lack thereof, is not enough to dissuade loyal residents from returning to the red soaked grounds they call home. As with most natural disasters, it is very difficult to help homeowners understand that returning to ravaged grounds before given the green light puts them in heightened danger.

Kolontar, one of the hardest hit villages, is still blocked off from any media groups. Environmental organizations like Greenspace are able to survey the situation and send reports back to the media. The responsible vacation industry must join forces such as these to make sure that the Hungarian sludge catastrophe is a top news story for the international community.

Photo Credit: gwydionwilliam