Expansion of the river: why the expansion of the Oder caused controversy

After the massive fish kill in the Oder, dredging is now continuing on the Polish side. The German Environment Minister, on the other hand, is calling for the Oder expansion to be stopped. Tina von Loehneysen and Anne Hahn about the German-Polish dispute.

If you ask Frauke Bennett what she loves about the Oder and the floodplain landscape around her, she takes a deep breath. You can tell she doesn’t even know where to start. It is based on the seasons: endless flower meadows and nesting birds in spring, resting cranes in summer and whooper swans wintering in autumn. “It’s a good feeling to stand by the river and see how strong the forces of nature can be.” That applies all year round. Bennett organizes canoe tours on the Oder. She lives off the river and – it quickly becomes clear – also with the river.

But unfortunately there are two different views on how the future should be shaped, says Bennett, with a view to the dispute over the Oder expansion.

It’s being excavated

On the Polish side in Slubice and Gozdowice, the excavators have been working since February, stones are being heaped up to form groynes and silt is being cleared. The state authority “Wody Polskie”, i.e. “Polish waters”, has announced that this will continue to be the case next year. Because you are doing exactly what was agreed with Germany in the 2015 contract, says Wojciech Skowryski, the deputy head of the authority. Incidentally, the concept for this was drawn up by the Federal Institute for Hydraulic Engineering in Karlsruhe with the participation of Polish experts. That’s why you don’t understand the current discussion in Germany at all.

Skowryski firmly defends himself against the accusations of the German environmental protection associations that the Oder would be deepened by the work in order to promote river navigation. “That’s not true, you can’t deepen the river,” he says. “We don’t concrete, we don’t straighten the river, we don’t deepen the fairway.” Rather, it is about the rehabilitation and restoration of existing regulatory structures. And above all to protect against flooding.

A “dying river”

That’s not true, say environmentalists. The river will be narrowed by the renewal of the groynes, i.e. the regulation structures. This increases the flow speed, sand is dragged along, which is deposited between the groynes, and the river deepens at the same time. As a result, the groundwater level drops, the floodplain landscape is in danger and with it the entire natural region.

“After the environmental disaster, we have a terminally ill river. If the Oder were a patient, there would be no way you would undertake such a major intervention as the planned construction work,” says Sascha Maier, who is the BUND’s water policy officer. Maier can talk for hours about measures, construction projects and waterways, but also about water protection. You can feel how much he cares about the Oder. Together with other environmental organizations, BUND has filed a lawsuit in Warsaw. They want to bring about an immediate stop and a thorough review of the entire project. In addition to the new starting position after the fish kill, the second argument is that the environmental impact assessment was not carried out properly in Poland.

Really only flood protection?

In Poland, too, there are doubts about the official account. WWF Poland suspects that more regulation could go unnoticed by the public than is necessary for pure protection against flooding. The beneficiaries of this work would then be inland navigation. But the damage would hit everyone. Katarzyna Czupryniak, who is responsible for water protection at the WWF, emphasizes: “The regulation of the Oder was one of the key factors responsible for the disaster on the Oder.”

Krzysztof Cibor from Greenpeace Poland is therefore calling for the Oder to be abandoned. Instead, consistent renaturation and the creation of a national park are necessary to prevent further interventions in the river in the future.

Lawsuit is being prepared

The German and Polish environmental organizations, which work closely together, are backed by the Environment Ministry of the State of Brandenburg. A lawsuit is also being prepared here, which will be filed with the administrative court in Warsaw in the coming weeks. The German Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke says: “Expansion measures on the Oder stand in the way of successful regeneration. That’s why I’m looking for an exchange with my Polish colleague to promote this understanding and to agree on next steps together.”

The FDP-led Federal Ministry of Transport is much more cautious. A spokesman points out that from a German point of view the agreement contains “moderate repair measures for existing groynes that affect the Oder as a traffic route and serve to ensure ice break-up”. But you also see yourself as responsible for the water ecosystem.

The strategic environmental assessment by the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration is ongoing. Sascha Maier from BUND expects a result in just over a year, until then nothing will happen. But even the “moderate repair measures” are harmful to the Oder, he says.

Canoe guide Frauke Bennett is also calling for a rethink. In the past 200 years, the rivers have been adapted to the ships, now it is high time to change that and adapt the ships to the rivers.