SLUNJ RESIDENTS URGE ESTABLISHMENT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR FRIDAY ECOLOGICAL INCIDENT SLUNJ, Oct 28 (Hina) - The residents of Slunj, a town about 90 km south of Zagreb, on Saturday urged competent bodies to establish the responsibility
of Transport Minister Alojz Tusek, Interior Minister Sime Lucin and the State Water Inspection for Friday's incident which occurred in Slusnica near Slunj, when a cistern with 8,000 litres of sulphuric acid overturned. Slunj Mayor Milan Skukan and his deputy Ivan Matesa said the intervention of county services and competent ministries into this unprecedented ecological incident had come too late. Skukan and Matesa consider it inadmissible that only on Saturday morning it was established that 7,800 litres of sulphuric acid had leaked out of the 8,000-litre cistern only some 400 metres from the water supply system in the area of Slusnica. This morning Slunj residents were left without water supply from the water well in Slusnica. E
SLUNJ, Oct 28 (Hina) - The residents of Slunj, a town about 90 km
south of Zagreb, on Saturday urged competent bodies to establish
the responsibility of Transport Minister Alojz Tusek, Interior
Minister Sime Lucin and the State Water Inspection for Friday's
incident which occurred in Slusnica near Slunj, when a cistern with
8,000 litres of sulphuric acid overturned.
Slunj Mayor Milan Skukan and his deputy Ivan Matesa said the
intervention of county services and competent ministries into this
unprecedented ecological incident had come too late.
Skukan and Matesa consider it inadmissible that only on Saturday
morning it was established that 7,800 litres of sulphuric acid had
leaked out of the 8,000-litre cistern only some 400 metres from the
water supply system in the area of Slusnica.
This morning Slunj residents were left without water supply from
the water well in Slusnica. Experts have been testing water quality
in water wells and rivers continually. The head of the Water
Inspectorate, Zeljko Makvic, declared the second degree of water
safety alert for the area. The town authorities have warned the
residents of Slunj and nearby villages not to use water from water-
wells either.
Teams from the State Institute for Toxicology, the Ministry of
Environmental Protection and the Croatian Waters visited the site
of the incident this morning.
Expert teams have started decontaminating the area along the
Plitvice road where the ground has soaked in more than 7,800 litres
of sulphuric acid.
The cistern, the Slunj officials say, was not travelling under
escort and this incident is not the first incident which occurred in
the area between Plitvice, Slunj and Karlovac.
Slunj residents are also protesting against the media's keeping mum
about this grave ecological incident.
The Minister of Environmental Protection, Bozo Kovacevic, said he
expected the results of the water quality tests and hoped the
salvage measures had been taken on time.
(hina) rml