environment
Minister: No all-clear for the Oder
Dead fish are floating in the German-Polish border river Oder in August 2022. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
In August there was a massive fish kill in the Oder. Experts see the reason for this being discharged salt combined with low water and high temperatures.
Brandenburg’s Environment and Agriculture Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) still sees the border river Oder in an alarming state after the massive fish kill in summer. At the same time he called on Poland to disclose salt discharges.
In the program “Brandenburg aktuell” on Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (Tuesday evening), the environment minister said: “The Oder is doing very modestly. We haven’t yet digested the ecological catastrophe on the Oder.” The salt loads are currently back to the same dimensions as was the case in the summer. “There can be no all-clear given at all.”
Fear of further mass fish kills
According to Vogel, salt discharges into the Oder continue unchanged. “We know that they come from Poland.” But the Polish side has not yet submitted a discharge cadastre. “The Poles are very tight-lipped when it comes to revealing who is discharging how much of the approved quantities. The Polish authorities probably don’t know who is discharging illegally either.” The EU should put pressure on the Polish side so that the salt discharges are disclosed.
He fears that if the combination of high salt discharges, very high temperatures and the discovered toxic species of algae return, there will be mass fish kills in the river again.