LMP accuses government of concealing essential information on battery plants

Laszlo Lorant Keresztes told a press conference that the interior ministry had fired a water management official for highlighting the dangers linked to the water demands of a battery plant to be built in Debrecen, in north-east Hungary.

The LMP politician insisted that assessment studies concerning battery plants’ water needs had been “changed and suppressed” and important expert opinions classified. Keresztes also said the planned Debrecen plant’s projected water and electricity demands had not been made public.

He said LMP regarded the awarding of the plant’s permit “unfounded” and the party would challenge it.

Claims that the plants would use only grey water as against drinking water are “pure propaganda”, he said. According to information released by the ministry in charge of energy affairs, no relevant plan has been prepared whatsoever, he added.

Commenting on battery recycling plants operating in Hungary, he said that an explosion in Batonyterenye injured several people last year, and according to press reports, there was another accident recently in the company’s Szigetszentmiklos unit, but no relevant information had been made public. If such incidents were caused by technological problems known to the authorities, then they must have consequences under criminal law, he added.