BERLIN/WARSAW, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Polish and German authorities are working “flat-out” to ascertain the cause behind a mass fish die-off in the river Oder, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke stated on Friday, warning of an environmental disaster.

Tonnes of useless fish have been discovered since late July in the river Oder, which runs by Germany and Poland. Both sides have stated they consider a poisonous substance is accountable however have but to determine it.

“An environmental catastrophe is in the offing,” Lemke instructed the RND newspaper group. “All sides are working flat out to find the reasons for this mass die-out and minimise potential further damage.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated the waterway would take years to return to regular.

“The scale of this pollution is very big. So big that the Oder may take years to return to a fairly normal state,” Morawiecki stated in a daily podcast on Friday.

“It is likely that enormous amounts of chemical waste have been dumped into the river,” he stated, including these accountable can be held accountable.

Late on Friday Morawiecki fired the pinnacle of Poland’s nationwide water administration authority, Przemyslaw Daca, and the pinnacle of the final environmental inspectorate Michal Mistrzak, saying that their establishments ought to have reacted earlier.

A spokesperson for the German atmosphere minister instructed a information convention on Friday that they have been following the state of affairs carefully, and that it was not but clear what had received into the water.

“We have an incomplete picture,” the spokesperson stated. “We need clarity on what materials are in the water.”

“GIGANTIC” POLLUTION

Green activists and opposition politicians have criticised the Polish authorities for not responding rapidly sufficient to the hazard and failing to alert Poles to keep away from bathing and angling in the river that has been contaminated since late July.

Germany has additionally grumbled over Poland’s response: Brandenburg atmosphere minister Axel Vogel had earlier stated “chains of communication between the Polish and German sides did not work in this case”.

Earlier Friday, Daca stated the state of affairs was critical and that by Thursday night Poland had collected over 11 tonnes of useless fish.

“The problem is enormous, the wave of pollution runs from Wroclaw to Szczecin. Those are hundreds of kilometres of river, the pollution is gigantic,” he was quoted as saying by Polish Radio 24.

An evaluation of river water taken this week confirmed proof of “synthetic chemical substances, very probably also with toxic effects for vertebrates,” the German state of Brandenburg’s atmosphere ministry stated on Thursday, including that it remained unclear how the substance entered the water.

According to native German broadcaster rbb, the state laboratory discovered excessive ranges of mercury in the water samples.

Poland has detected mercury above regular ranges in samples of Oder water from the province of Silesia, no traces of the toxic metallic have been discovered in samples taken in the West Pomeranian, Lubusz and Lower Silesian provinces, Deputy Environment Minister Jacek Ozdoba instructed a information briefing late on Friday.
Poland plans to arrange a barrier on the Oder close to town of Kostrzyn to gather useless fish flowing down the river, with 150 Territorial Defence Forces troopers delegated to assist with the clean-up.

Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Marek Strzelecki and Pawel Florkiewicz; Additional reporting by Anna Koper, Thomas Escritt and Karol Badohal, Writing by Rachel More; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Mike Harrison, Toby Chopra, Raissa Kasolowsky and Louise Heavens

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