Hungary is located in central Europe and is a landlocked nation. Hungary has fertile soil and was an agricultural nation until 1948, when Communists came to power and began to industrialize the country. By the last years of Communist rule, nearly 40 percent of its citizens resided in places where air pollution was above accepted international standards. Coal-burning power plants and cars were responsible for most of the emissions. Inadequate sewage systems and industrial waste polluted the nation's rivers, including the Danube, and ground water. Alarmed by these problems, the Hungarian government passed new environmental regulations and received loans from the World Bank to implement controls. Another major shift in Hungarian history came in 1990 when a non-Communist government was elected and Hungary began the ...