environmental disaster
“Fake news is being spread in Germany”: The mysterious death of fish in the Oder is followed by rough tones from Poland
Anna Moskwa, Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland
© Marcin Obara/PAP/DPA
The Polish Environment Minister accuses Germany of spreading false information. The pesticides found in the river were used as an attack on agriculture, so the accusation.
In connection with the fish kill in the Oder, Poland’s government speaks of false reports from Germany. “Warning, another fake news is being spread in Germany!!! Pesticides and herbicides. In Poland, the substance was tested and found to be below the limit of quantification, i.e. without any effects on fish or other animals, and with no connection to fish kills,” wrote Poland’s Environment Minister Anna Moskva on Twitter on Saturday night.
The substances have not been detected in fish, Moskva said in another tweet, “An unjustified attack on agriculture. First industry, now agriculture? What next?”
In the past few days, masses of dead fish have been discovered and collected in the Oder on the Polish and German sides. The exact cause has not yet been clarified. Brandenburg’s Ministry of the Environment announced on Saturday that high concentrations of a pesticide containing the active ingredient 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid had been found in samples taken at the Frankfurt (Oder) measuring point between August 7th and 9th. However, it can be assumed that the detected dose was not immediately fatal to fish. The active ingredient is used, for example, to combat weeds.
Criticism of Poland is growing
Poland’s national conservative PiS government is under pressure because Polish authorities were hesitant to respond to the first indications of the fish kill. In Germany, too, complaints were made that Polish authorities had not complied with the internationally agreed information chains. Representatives of the PiS repeatedly responded with anti-German tones – and with attacks on the Polish opposition. They assume that they willingly accept the German narrative about possible causes of the environmental catastrophe.
By Saturday, around 200 tons of dead fish had been collected in Poland and Germany. The Polish fire brigade put the amount on Saturday at 158 tons. According to an earlier report by the Ministry of the Environment, there were at least 36 tons in Brandenburg. According to the Ministry of the Interior in Warsaw, more than 3,000 firefighters, more than 2,000 police officers and 1,300 soldiers were deployed in Poland to recover the carcasses.