The second longest Polish river, marking the border with Germany, has experienced a vague pollution since the end of July. More than 100 tonnes of fish have already been found dead without any precise cause could be determined to date.
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“It is the worst ecological catastrophe that Poland has known in recent years”, is indignant at the end of the line Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic, from Zielona Gora, a city in western Poland. In its constituency flows the ODER, a river which has its source in the Czech Republic and marks the Polish-German border for 160 kilometers before joining the Baltic Sea, via the Szczecin lagoon. The elected official of the New Left Party (Nowa Lewica) has seen in recent days the extent of the damage around Zielona Gora. “This is the first time that I have seen a stream in such a state: an incalculable number of dead fish was flowing while in the reiller reigned a postapocalyptic silence. The birds had completely disappeared.”
Nearly 100 tonnes of dead fish have been drafted by firefighters on the Polish river bank between August 12 and 16, and several floating barriers were installed for this purpose, downstream of the river. The first appearances of lifeless fish in the ODER were however reported by fishermen at the end of July, but the Polish authorities were slow to react. “I was informed of the situation on August 9 or 10 in the evening. It was resolutely too late,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday August 13, who dismissed the director, the director Polish waters, as well as that of the inspection of environmental protection. These two entities respectively have the burden of water management and environmental protection in the country.
“The government has reacted unacceptably and is now looking for scapegoats,” said Marek Jozefiak, spokesperson for the NGO Greenpeace in Poland. The national conservative nationals, in power for almost seven years in Warsaw, are indeed accused by environmentalists of doing few cases of the environment. “What is needed is above all a systemic change in environmental protection, recommends Marek Jozefiak. The Barycz river [an Oder tributary] experienced significant pollution two years ago and no culprit has never been found. “The activist would like to obtain the implementation of systematic water quality control,” like that of air quality “, and better endowment For the inspection of environmental protection, “unable to fulfill your office, lack of sufficient finances”.
“The information exchange system between Poland and Germany in crisis has not worked. Such a situation cannot repeat itself,” warned German Minister of the Environment For his part , Steffi Lemke, during a trip to Poland last Sunday, in Szczecin, in the company of his Polish counterpart and several other ministers from the two border countries.
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