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Environment Minister Steffi Lemke is getting information from helpers in Frankfurt an der Oder
Photo: ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS
Environment Minister Steffi Lemke has acknowledged difficulties in cooperating with Poland in clarifying the fish kill in the Oder.
"The question of German-Polish cooperation obviously didn't work at this point, otherwise we would have received information earlier, at least from the state of Brandenburg or the neighboring municipalities," said Lemke in the evening in Frankfurt (Oder).
There, helpers had collected many dead fish from the shore.
"In fact, we know that this reporting chain, which is intended for such cases, did not work," a spokesman for the Ministry of the Environment had previously said.
The state of Brandenburg had also criticized that it had not been informed by the Polish authorities.
Lemke is now aiming for better coordination.
The Greens politician said that she had already agreed with her Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa on Friday that there should be a joint expert assessment and an exchange of results.
During her visit to the Oder, Lemke was moved by what the official and voluntary helpers had achieved: "You also have to thank the anglers, who obviously drew attention very quickly after noticing the first dead fish."
Elevated mercury levels probably not responsible
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Environment in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania expects the effects of the fish kill on the Szczecin Lagoon and, as a precaution, called on the residents to refrain from fishing and water abstraction.
The responsible authorities in the federal state are currently preparing water and fish samples.
Lemke assured that "precautions to protect the population will be taken by the measurements and then by appropriate warnings from the German side".
Poland has offered a reward of the equivalent of 210,000 euros for investigating the mass death of fish in the Oder.
The government suspects that a huge amount of chemical waste was dumped into the river.
Initially, mercury was suspected of having caused the fish kill.
But according to the Polish government, the increased values found in the Oder are not responsible for this.
This was the result of the first toxicological test results from samples of dead fish, Moskva wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
The death of fish in the Oder has been worrying people who live on the river in Poland and Germany for days.
dam/dpa
