BERLIN/WARSAW (Reuters) – German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said on Wednesday that authorities in Poland and Germany were working “all in” to find out what caused the mass fish deaths in the Oder river. Catastrophe.
A large number of dead fish have been found in the Oder River in Germany and Poland since late July. Both sides say they believe a toxic substance is to blame, but have yet to identify it.
“Environmental catastrophe is on the horizon,” Lemke told the RND News Group. “All sides are working hard to find out the reason for this mass death and to minimize the potential for further damage.”
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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said it would take years for the waterway to return to normal.
“The scale of this contamination is huge. It’s so big that it could take years for the Oder to return to a fairly normal state,” Morawiecki said on Friday’s regular podcast.
“Huge amounts of chemical waste were likely dumped into the river,” he said, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.
Late on Friday, Morawiecki fired the heads of Poland’s national water management agency, Przemyslaw Daca, and general environmental inspector Michal Mistrzak, saying their agencies should have responded sooner. rice field.
A spokesperson for Germany’s environment minister said at a press conference on Friday that they were watching the situation closely and it was not yet clear what had entered the water.
“We have an imperfect picture,” said a spokesperson. “We need to clarify the substances contained in the water.”
“Huge” Pollution
Environmentalists and opposition politicians have criticized the Polish government for not responding quickly to the danger and warning Poles to avoid bathing and fishing in the polluted river since late July. .
Germany has also expressed dissatisfaction with Poland’s response. Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel previously said: “In this case, the liaison network between Poland and Germany did not work.”
Earlier on Friday, Daka said the situation was serious and that by Thursday night Poland had collected more than 11 tons of dead fish.
“The problem is huge. Waves of pollution stretch from Wroclaw to Szczecin. They are hundreds of kilometers of rivers and the pollution is huge,” he told Poland’s Radio 24.
Germany’s Brandenburg Environment Ministry said Thursday that analyzes of river water this week showed evidence of “a synthetic chemical that is very likely to have toxic effects on vertebrates as well.” , added that it remains unclear how the substance entered the water.
A state-run laboratory detected high levels of mercury in water samples, according to German local broadcaster rbb.
Poland detected above-normal levels of mercury in Oder water samples from Silesia. No traces of toxic metals were found in samples taken in West Pomerania, Lubusz and Lower Silesia, Deputy Environment Minister Jacek Ozdova said at a news briefing late on Friday. Poland plans to erect a barrier on the Oder River near the city of Kostzin to collect dead fish that float down the river, and 150 Wehrmacht soldiers have been entrusted to help clean it up.
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Reported by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Marek Strzelecki and Pawel Florkiewicz. Additional reporting by Anna Koper, Thomas Escritt and Karol Badohal, written by Rachel More. Edited by Hugh Lawson, Mike Harrison, Toby Chopra, Raissa Kasolowsky, Louise Heavens
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