August 15: Dead fish float on the surface of the German-Polish border river Oder Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/dpa
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) has made Poland obligated to discharge less saline sewage into the Oder.
“Poland does not deny that the salt in the river comes from the opencast mines,” Lemke told Der Spiegel. It is therefore important that “in Poland the discharges are reduced”.
According to Lemke, the authorities in particular should have acted more vigorously against the pollution. “There were authorities in Poland who thought that things would not be that bad. Unfortunately, the reporting chain did not work on the Polish side,” explained Lemke.
Last summer there was a massive death of fish in the Oder. Experts in Germany and Poland concluded that it was most likely the toxic effects of the algal bloom that caused the death of the fish. The algae are said to have spread particularly strongly because of the salt discharges.