Those are hundreds of kilometres of river, the pollution is gigantic,' he was quoted as saying by Polish Radio 24.Īn analysis of river water taken this week showed evidence of 'synthetic chemical substances, very probably also with toxic effects for vertebrates,' the German state of Brandenburg's environment ministry said on Thursday, adding that it remained unclear how the substance entered the water.Īccording to local German broadcaster rbb, the state laboratory found high levels of mercury in the water samples. 'The problem is enormous, the wave of pollution runs from Wroclaw to Szczecin. Germany has also grumbled over Poland's response: Brandenburg environment minister Axel Vogel had earlier said 'chains of communication between the Polish and German sides did not work in this case'.Įarlier Friday, Daca said the situation was serious and that by Thursday evening Poland had collected over 11 tonnes of dead fish. Green activists and opposition politicians have criticised the Polish government for not responding quickly enough to the danger and failing to alert Poles to avoid bathing and angling in the river that has been contaminated since late July. 'We need clarity on what materials are in the water.' 'We have an incomplete picture,' the spokesperson said.

Late on Friday Morawiecki fired the head of Poland's national water management authority, Przemyslaw Daca, and the head of the general environmental inspectorate Michal Mistrzak, saying that their institutions should have reacted earlier.Ī spokesperson for the German environment minister told a news conference on Friday that they were following the situation closely, and that it was not yet clear what had got into the water. 'It is likely that enormous amounts of chemical waste have been dumped into the river,' he said, adding those responsible would be held accountable.

So big that the Oder may take years to return to a fairly normal state,' Morawiecki said in a regular podcast on Friday. 'The scale of this pollution is very big.

Flatout sport fishing