Useless fish and despair on the banks of the Oder

Showing drained and confused, Piotr Wloch appears out dejectedly at his empty vacationer boats on the Oder river after an environmental catastrophe that has killed 1000’s of fish.

Like many native companies, Wloch has seen bookings plunge by 90 p.c following the as but unexplained disaster on the plush banks of a river between Poland and Germany.

“I am simply beginning to understand the size of what occurred,” Wloch instructed AFP.

“Yesterday, I slept all day as a result of I used to be depressed, unable to maneuver,” he mentioned.

Within the empty vacationer marina of Cigacice in Poland, firefighters in a rubber dinghy are nonetheless eradicating useless fish whereas environmental company employees take water samples for assessments.

The stench of useless fish fills the air.

Between 200 and 300 kilograms (440-660 kilos) of useless fish have been eliminated in Cigacice prior to now few days—out of round 300 metric tons in complete from the Oder because the begin of August, officers mentioned.

“Everyone seems to be afraid. Just some curious individuals pop in to take a look, however life has stopped,” mentioned Lukasz Duch, director of a neighborhood sports activities middle.

“Earlier than the air pollution, on a great weekend, Cigacice would draw between 5,000 and 10,000 vacationers.

“This place was energetic… Now companies are making nothing in excessive season,” he mentioned.

‘Afraid of the river’

Whereas the primary indicators of air pollution appeared on the finish of July, the world round Cigacice was solely affected on August 8.

Hundreds of useless fish started showing within the water. Within the area as a complete, residents and firefighters rushed to their river in an effort to scrub it up.

Poland’s authorities solely reacted on August 12, sparking widespread criticism from each native Polish authorities and Germany.

“If we had had the knowledge two weeks earlier, we might have ready,” mentioned Wojciech Soltys, the mayor of Sulechow, the municipality the place Cigacice is positioned.

“Now we’re nonetheless ready for clear and concrete data. What occurred? When will we be capable of return to the river?”

The Oder begins within the Czech Republic earlier than passing into Poland the place it kinds a pure border with Germany after which leads to the Baltic Sea.

Till the tip of the Nineties, it was closely polluted—an industrial legacy of the communist period.

In 1997, following huge flooding, the river cleaned up naturally and folks started returning to its banks.

Wloch was a part of this motion.

“We labored for a very long time for individuals to come back and bathe within the river, chill out right here. Within the Eighties and Nineties it regarded horrible,” he mentioned.

“Now, persons are afraid of the river once more. It is going to be tough to revive this confidence,” mentioned Wloch, who has seen 12 years of labor disappear in a second.

Poisonous algae from air pollution

Krzysztof Feodorowicz, proprietor of a winery within the Polish village of Laz close to the river, mentioned it appears like “an industrial waste canal”.

Like many others, he had been anticipating an environmental catastrophe.

“The Oder was a time bomb. We knew very effectively that quite a few industrial enterprises in Silesia have been pouring their wastewater straight into it,” he mentioned.

Feodorowicz mentioned environmental checks are carried out however they don’t seem to be working effectively.

German and Polish officers say the catastrophe may have been triggered by poisonous algae brought on by industrial waste in Poland.

“Uncontrolled air pollution led to a sequence of occasions that it’s inconceivable to understand,” mentioned Grzegorz Gabrys, head of the zoology division on the College of Zielona Gora in Poland.

“Aside from the fish, we’ve got seen the dying of different filtering organisms akin to clams. If all these organisms have disappeared from the ecosystem, the implications of this disaster may play out over a interval of a few years,” he mentioned.

Gabrys criticized Poland’s common method to defending its waterways.

“Many individuals take into account rivers a part of the technical infrastructure,” he mentioned.

Paraphrasing former US president Invoice Clinton’s well-known phrase, he added: “It is nature, silly!”

© 2022 AFP