Environmental catastrophe feared as ‘toxin’ kills thousands of fish in European river

‘It is likely that enormous amounts of chemical waste have been dumped into the river,’ says Polish PM

Fish lie dead on the western bank of the River Oder (Getty Images)

Tonnes of fish have died in the River Oder, which runs between Poland and Germany, in an apparent major environmental disaster.

The animals have been dying since late July during a time of scorching temperatures and drought across Europe.

But authorities in both countries believe a toxic substance might be to blame, although they have yet to identify it.

“An environmental catastrophe is in the offing,” German environment minister Steffi Lemke said on Friday. “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 said: “The scale of this pollution is very big. So big that the Oder may take years to return to a fairly normal state,” Morawiecki said in a regular podcast on Friday.

“It is likely that enormous amounts of chemical waste have been dumped into the river.”

He added that those responsible would be held accountable.

Germany says there is “an incomplete picture” and that clarity was needed to know exactly what materials have gone into the water.

The debate over the potential disaster has already turned political.

Green activists and opposition politicians have criticised the Polish government for not responding quickly enough to the danger and failing to alert Poles to avoid bathing and angling in the river last month.

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

The head of Poland’s national water management authority said the situation was serious and that by Thursday evening Poland had collected more than 11 tonnes of dead fish.

“[It] is being investigated by the prosecutor’s office, the police and local environmental protection inspectorates,” Przemyslaw Daca, the head of Polish Waters, was quoted as saying by Polish Radio 24.

“The problem is enormous: the wave of pollution runs from Wroclaw to Szczecin. Those are hundreds of kilometres of river, the pollution is gigantic.”

Fish lie dead next to the disused Oder railway bridge in Bienenwerder (Getty Images)

An analysis of river water taken this week showed evidence of “synthetic chemical substances, very probably also with toxic effects for vertebrates,” the German state of Brandenburg’s environment ministry said on Thursday, adding that it remained unclear how the substance entered the water.

According to local German broadcaster rbb, the state laboratory found high levels of mercury in the water samples.

However, Wladyslaw Dajczak, the head of Poland’s Lubusz province, quoted by PAP news agency, said that tests run on 10 and 11 August showed mercury was found only in “trace amounts”, well within allowed levels.

He said a barrier would be set up on the Oder near the city of Kostrzyn to collect dead fish flowing down the river, with 150 Territorial Defence Forces soldiers delegated to help with the clean-up.

(With agencies)