Europe

Oder pollution symptomatic of toxic Polish-German relationship

At least 250 tonnes of dead fish have been recovered from the river since mid-July amid low water levels and toxic algal bloom

Polish firefighters set up a floating damm to catch dead fish from the river Oder in Gryfino, near Szczecin. Photograph: Marcin Bielecki/AFP

Derek Scally's face
Derek Scally in Warsaw
Thu Aug 25 2022 - 19:25

Somewhere in the surging brown waters of the river Oder, dividing Poland from Germany, lies a troubling summer riddle: what is killing all the fish?

Since mid-July millions of lifeless fish — at least 250 tonnes of them — have been recovered from the 742km river that flows north from the Czech Republic into the Baltic Sea.

Experts say a combination of factors is to blame for the ecological and economic catastrophe: record low water levels, higher temperatures, oxygen shortages for fish and a rare bloom of toxic, “golden” algae. Other as-yet unknown pollutants have not been ruled out.

But each additional day without clear answers has added pressure to the historically burdened relationship between Poland and Germany. Some here think things are now as bad as they have ever been in the last 30 years, even more poisonous than the river water separating them.

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[ Poland says toxic algae may explain fish deaths ]

The latest, desperate intervention by Poland’s Baltic coastal region of Western Pomerania saw 21 aeration pumps installed in the river to oxygenate the water and, so it was hoped, prevent fish from suffocating.

But Zbigniew Bogucki, governor of the West Pomerania province, has few illusions: “We are not able to reverse entirely these adverse conditions.”

Both Western Pomerania and the Lubuskie province, east of Berlin, have appealed to Warsaw to declare a natural disaster, releasing crisis compensation for regional businesses and fishers who face economic ruin.

While they wait for a decision all they can do is span nets, usually used to contain oil slicks, across the river to capture the rotting fish washed down from further upstream.

Demanding action, too, are hundreds of black-clad protesters who have held silent “Marches of Mourning” in Warsaw and other cities to highlight what they see as “years of environmental neglect” in Poland.

“This is not just an environmental disaster, it is a disaster of the Polish state,” said marcher Krzysztof Smolnicki to the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

A dead fish floats in the water of the Oder river, in Frankfurt. The Oder is suffering from an environmental disaster and dead fish are washing up on the river banks. Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE

In the crisis all eyes have focused on the actions — and inaction — of Polish Waters, a state waterways authority set up in 2020 but with little apparent capacity to monitor industrial pollution. Its director was fired earlier this month for not responding quickly enough to the crisis. Now his acting successor, Krzysztof Wos, has conceded that about 1,400 sewage pipes are operating in the country without permits. Of these, 282 — one fifth of the total — flow directly into the Oder.

Combined with this summer’s unique environmental conditions, his body has stepped up factory inspections. But identifying sources of illegal sewage, he insisted at a press conference this week is “not within the competences of Polish Waters ... but above all the duty of the climate and environment ministry”.

Environment minister Anna Moskwa has focused her attention this week criticising what she called “more fake news from Germany”.

She was referring to weekend German media reports of higher than normal levels of pesticides and other substances in river water, which were described as harmful but not deadly for fish.

For Moskwa these reports were “unjustified attacks” on Polish agriculture and firms. On Twitter she asked: “What will come next?”

In response, Berlin said it “regretted that the Polish side has come to this conclusion”, but insisted that “at no time and from no one” in Germany was there a claim that Polish pesticides had caused the mass fish death.

Berlin’s federal environment ministry has complained of sluggish responses to information requests; Warsaw has hit back that Germany has not installed enough nets to catch dead fish.

A joint Polish-German committee has been set up to prevent further “disquiet” in the crisis. But as next year’s general election looms, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party appears focused on securing a third term by ramping up disquiet with its neighbour.

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In the latest in a series of recent interventions, Poland’s foreign minister Zbigniew Rau insisted this week the EU is threatened not just from Russia’s external threat — but from German-lead “imperialism within”.

An EU plan to move from consensus decision-making — and national vetoes — to majority voting was, Rau said, part of a “German-Russia plan to rule Europe”.

Days earlier, central bank president Adam Glapiński warned Berlin was aiming trying to recover territory lost to Poland after 1945 “and the subjugation of the entire belt of countries between Germany and Russia”.