Page 96 [96]
OCR
94 VIKTOR GLIED the decision-makers. Such a “poster child” was the battery factory established in Göd where several conflicts have arisen since its foundation in 2016. First, inhabitants protested against the planned project, saying that they had had no chance to express their position (the public was inadequately informed, not being regarded as a party to the decision). This was followed by voicing worries about pollution as customary in environmental conflicts (risk perception, endangerment). In 2018, complaints were made about the closeness of the factory to residential areas, noise pollution and a stinging chemical smell (worry about a definite pollutant) . In that year and in 2019, the clearing of forests and expropriations of agricultural areas shocked the local residents and they expressed their anxieties at a public forum (environmental destruction, lack of partnership). The concern was raised that the factory put the inhabitants at risk, but the leader of the firm who had conducted the safety analysis assured the gathered residents that the storage of the 200-ton electrode would not be dangerous for the population. Many argued that the security system of the plant had not been installed as required by regulations and that the plan for serious disaster management was missing, as the plant was situated closer than 300 m to residential neighborhoods. They also protested that the construction of the storage facilities had begun before the permits had been issued and some parts of the building were less than 20 m away from local residents’ houses (legal offenses in the procedure). The petition about the protest was signed by more than 500 people (the population of Géd is over 18,000). The requests for public information by the affected party were not answered by the competent Pest County Government Office.‘ In 2022, the government declared the factory and the water utility investments in the vicinity to be priority investments of public benefit. The battery factory's water consumption is comparable to that of a city with 100,000 inhabitants. This means a daily amount of 27,000 cubic meters of industrial and drinking water, which arrives in the special economic zone of Göd along pipes partly affecting Natura 2000 areas.* It was made public in November 2022 that a Chinese battery factory — as one of Hungary’s ever largest investment projects — would be constructed in the Southern Industrial Park of Debrecen, on a total of 221 hectares. The government pronounced the gigaproject of some 3 trillion HUF to be a major priority investment of national benefit. It means that without asking or informing the stakeholders and people affected by the deployment, the construction can be launched with tight deadlines.A local referendum has been initiated on the issue.‘ Zsuzsanna Bodnár: Engedély nélküli építkezés, letarolt erdő, gyorsított kisajátítás: nő az elégedetlenség Gödön a Samsung-gyár miatt [Construction without permission, clear-cutting, accelerated expropriation: rising discontent in Göd over the Samsung factory]. Átlátszó. https://atlatszo. hu/2018/11/26/engedely-nelkuli-epitkezes-letarolt-erdo-gyorsitott-kisajatitas-no-az-elegedetlenseggodon-a-samsung-gyar-miatt/ György Farkas: Kiemelten közérdekű lett a gödi Samsung szennyvize [The waste water of Samsung in Göd is declared a salient public concern]. https://24.hu/belfold/2022/11/03/kozlony-samsungszennyviz-kozerdek-vac/ Ferenc Bakró-Nagy: Helyi népszavazást kezdeményez az LMP a Debrecenbe tervezett kínai akkumulátorgyár építéséről ILMP initiates a local referendum in Debrecen about the planned Chinese battery factory]. https://telex.hu/belfold/2022/10/07/Imp-debrecen-nepszavazas-kinaiakkumulatorgyar.
