German municipalities banned swimming and fishing in the Oder after thousands of dead fish were found floating in the 840km river, which stretches from the Czech Republic to the Baltic Sea along the border between Germany and Poland. Conservationists have expressed fears that the mass die-off could wreak havoc on the entire Oder ecosystem. “We have to see how the bird population develops and what will happen to raccoons and otters,” Karina Dörk, regional administrator of Germany’s Uckermark district, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. “It’s a disaster that will stay with us for years.” According to the interior ministry in Warsaw, 2,000 police officers, 300 firefighters and 200 soldiers have been deployed to help retrieve animal carcasses from the water in recent days. On Monday morning, the environment ministers of Poland and Germany announced a plan to use floating oil dams to stop floating dead fish from spreading further into the Szczecin lagoon, where the Oder flows into the Baltic Sea’s Pomeranian gulf. Samples taken on Saturday showed that the contaminated water had not yet reached the western half of the lagoon. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Both the German and Polish governments have said they believe the outbreak was caused by a leak of toxic chemicals from industrial production, and Poland has offered a reward of 1 million zlotys, or €210,000 (£180,000), for anyone who can “help find those responsible for this environmental disaster.” But the search for the exact cause was vague and sometimes frustrated by poor communication between the Polish and German sides. Last week, officials in Germany said scientists had discovered a high concentration of mercury in water samples – a claim rejected by Polish officials over the weekend. “The state veterinary institute has finished testing fish for the presence of heavy metals,” Polish Environment Minister Anna Moskwa said on Twitter. “Ruled out heavy metals as cause of fish kills.” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday fired the chief executive of Polish Waters, the state-owned company responsible for managing water in Poland, and the head of the environmental protection inspectorate in response to the handling of the Oder pollution. Polish fishermen had reported an unusually high number of dead fish near Wroclaw on July 26, but German officials said they were not informed of the problem downstream until the beginning of the second week of August.
