As Widuchowa residents searched for tools to pull the lifeless bodies from the river, the government began to react to a crisis that many scientists say came too late. “It was the hardest five days of my life,” said Pawel Wrobel, mayor of Widuchowa, which is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the town where dead fish were first spotted. “I never imagined experiencing such a disaster, it’s something you see in disaster movies.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register With the help of the local community, he collected dozens of forks, used to lift potatoes, to remove the dead fish from the river, which marks part of the Polish-German border. “We don’t know how to do it and what tools to use, we learn from our mistakes,” Wrobel said. On August 12, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired the head of Poland’s national water authority and the head of the general environmental inspectorate, saying their institutions should have reacted sooner. read more Despite numerous tests of fish and water samples by Polish and foreign laboratories and a 1 million zloty ($211,775) reward for information on the source of contamination, it is still unclear what poisoned the Oder, Poland’s second-largest river. “We are focused, on the one hand, on stopping what is happening and, on the other hand, finding the reason for this situation,” said Climate Ministry spokesman Alexander Brzozka. Researchers in Germany and Poland’s climate ministry have pointed to large overgrowths of toxic algae as a possible cause of the mass extinction. read more “The most likely hypothesis is that it was a combination of various natural factors,” Brzozka said.
‘SOMETHING IS WRONG’
Dead fish from the Oder River are pictured as water pollution is believed to be the cause of a mass fish kill, in the village of Widuchowa, Poland, August 17, 2022. REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki read more Locals told Reuters that firefighters and territorial defense forces deployed by the government to remove tons of dead fish were not prepared for what awaited them in the river. The stench around the waters was so bad that most of them vomited during their work, according to villagers. Local businesses have also been affected. When Piotr Bugaj, a passionate fisherman and owner of boats, slips and room rentals on the Oder heard what was coming, he knew it was time to put his business on hold. He asked his guests from the Czech Republic to leave the water and canceled all future bookings from customers, who flock to Widuchowa from all over Europe for its wildlife and diverse population of large fish such as catfish and perch. “If it is possible with such a tragedy, I would really like to know that only what was on the surface was extinguished and nothing more. But for now, no one has checked what is currently at the bottom of the river,” he said. The government has promised support to those affected by the crisis. Piotr Piznal, a local activist, has dedicated his life to photographing wildlife around the Oder. The past week has been documenting the devastation. “It’s hard because in reality, the world that my friend and I have been observing and photographing for the past few years is disappearing,” he says. “I think that after what happened in Oder it will take years to rebuild the ecosystem… It will have to be reborn to function as it has until now.” Meanwhile, fear and uncertainty prevail among the residents of Widuchowa. “The dead fish warned us that something was wrong,” said Sylwia Palasz-Wrobel, the wife of the mayor of Widuchowa, standing next to her husband on the dirty shore of the Oder. “When the fish are gone, who’s going to tell us the next time there’s a disaster? We’d like to know who’s responsible for it.” ($1 = 4.7220 zlotys) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska and Kuba Stezycki Editing by Alan Charlish and Alex Richardson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
