Aug. 16 () –
The Government of Poland has resorted to international aid to try to detect the origin of the serious pollution that affects the Oder River and that, according to environmental organizations, is the biggest environmental disaster that the country has suffered in years.
Local authorities have sent water samples to laboratories in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, Environment Minister Anna Moskwa reported on her Twitter account. These investigations are added to those already carried out by Polish researchers.
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, has offered the support of the EU to “minimize the damage” to the ecosystem of the area, after speaking on Tuesday by telephone with the German Minister of the branch, Steffi Lemke. “We must improve the detection of contamination as soon as possible and deploy coordinated actions in cross-border incidents,” she said.
Germany, where the river also runs -it is a border for more than a hundred kilometers-, has accused Poland of ignoring the magnitude of the disaster when it became known more than two weeks ago. Polish emergency services removed some 80 tons of dead fish last weekend.
None of the analyzes carried out so far in Poland or Germany have been conclusive in establishing a cause, since large amounts of a toxin that justify the massive death of fish have not been detected. Among the hypotheses that are also being considered are an increase in salinity or a worsening of conditions derived from the drop in water level, according to the Bloomberg agency.
The Government of Poland has offered a reward of one million zlotys (about 214,000 euros) in exchange for information that helps identify the possible person responsible for this disaster.
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