Toxic material that spilled out of a sodium bicarbonate factory is heading down the Spreca river and will reach the Bosna river Monday afternoon or evening, authorities said.
“We are still warning citizens not to use the Spreca or Bosna water until the relevant authorities decide otherwise,” the Civil Protection Administration in Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia’s Serb-dominated sub-state, said in a statement.
Part of the sedimentation tank of a sodium bicarbonate factory collapsed last Friday, causing a spill of toxic material into the surrounding area that reached the nearby Spreca river. Some dead fish were already noticed.
Abdel Djozic, an expert from the Faculty of Technology in Tuzla, told N1 that the hole in the sedimentation tank was fixed. The lime that spilled into Spreca has a pH value of 11, while the standard pH value in the river is 8.
“This acidity gets diluted when it mixes with the water. So already 500 metres down form the place where the river is contaminated, the pH value drops to eight or seven,” the expert said.
According to Djozic, it is not likely that the contamination will reach the Sava river in Croatia, as the pH value will completely normalize by then.
“The only visible change will be the white colour (of the water), but we cannot speak of contamination,” he said.
However, the contamination close to the spill has seriously affected farmers in the area. They will not be able to use it from growing crops so it will be removed and new soil will be poured over the area.
