By Isabel Pfannkuche and Til Biermann
It was not an accident! It was intentional! The poison that kills tens of thousands of fish in the Oder River is said to have been deliberately dumped into the river.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (54) said on Friday:
“It is likely that a huge amount of chemical waste was dumped into the river – and with full knowledge of the risks and consequences.”
The prime minister already fired the heads of the water and environmental authorities – for reacting too slowly to the fish kill.
Allegedly, the fish kill was triggered around July 28 near Opole (near Wroclaw). According to the Federal Ministry of the Environment, however, a report to Brandenburg was not made until Thursday – 13 days later!
Fact is: Significantly elevated mercury levels were detected in the water. So high that the Brandenburg state laboratory is now even carrying out a so-called plausibility check. And in Poland, the toxic substance mesitylene was already detected in two places in July.
“What the fish really died of, we do not know yet,” says Brandenburg’s Environment Minister Axel Vogel (66). Starting Saturday, the Schwedt fire department plans to collect fish carcasses from the shore to prevent birds from eating the fish.
Twelve tons of dead fish have already been taken from the Polish Oder. The disposal is complex. First the animals are put into containers, then they have to be taken to special incineration plants as hazardous waste.
However, it will not be possible to collect all the dead fish from the water – there are too many. Furthermore, there is a ban on recycling Oder fish and a ban on swimming …
“The majority of the mercury is likely to drift downstream with the so-called suspended load and be deposited in the river and eventually in the Baltic Sea,” said Dr. Finn Viehberg (47), head of the WWF Baltic Sea office. “It will pollute the environment for years to come.”
The most important task now is to find the poisoner, Poland’s Prime Minister Morawiecki said, “You just want to scream with rage. We will not rest until the culprits are severely punished.”
