The spill does not threaten the water supplies of Budapest, north Hungary or Transdanubian, he underlined.

So far four people have died and three others are still missing after about one million cubic metres of highly alkaline red sludge spilled from a reservoir of the aluminium producer MAL near Ajka, Veszprém county on Monday. Over 120 people were hospitalised in the wake of the toxic spill.

The clean up of the villages affected by the spillage is expected to be finished next Monday, but the complete elimination of the damage done to the region will take many weeks, Disaster Management director general György Bakondi told reporters on Thursday after visiting the red-mud-afflicted village of Kolontár.

Meanwhile MAL has held talks with four banks on funding the decontamination of the affected areas.

The entire flora and fauna of the Marcal river has perished, Dobson explained.

The Marcal’s flora and fauna should return to normal in three to five years, just as the Tisza did following the cyanide contamination in early 2000, World Wildlife Fund Hungary acting director Gábor Figeczki told MTI.

Environmental protection state secretary Zoltán Illés told foreign reporters on Thursday that life could return to normal in the Ajka region within a month. The biggest and most concentrated work is the collection and shipping of toxic mud,” Illés added.

However, Figeczki said it is uncertain where the mud can be shipped to. The 800 hectares of contaminated soil will have to be withdrawn from agricultural cultivation and no food may be produced there for 30 years, he added."

Source: Hungary Around the Clock.

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