Marcin Horała, who is a deputy minister for development funds and regional policy, made the appeal in an interview with Polish Radio on Friday, the public broadcaster’s IAR news agency reported.
He said "state agencies are investigating the matter” and the armed forces “are helping take the dead fish out of the river.”
Horała urged everyone to “wait for the results of the investigation, because by speculating too much you can produce disinformation rather than information.”
10 million tonnes of dead fish taken out of Oder
The Oder has likely been polluted near the southwestern Polish city of Oława, officials said.
The waters have turned murky and foul-smelling. By Thursday, 10 million tonnes of dead fish had been taken out of the western river, according to the state Polish Waters company.
'No toxic substances have been found'
Horała said that so far “no toxic substances have been found in the Oder, but the waters have unnaturally high levels of oxygen, which may also cause fish kills and may suggest that the situation is man-made.”
Meanwhile, the river wave carrying the dead fish and causing the die-offs was expected to reach Poland's northwestern Zachodniopomorskie province on Friday afternoon, according to officials.
Provincial governor Zbigniew Bogucki told reporters that dead fish were being removed from the Oder to minimise the threat of an epidemic.
He added that a barrier would likely be constructed in the southern part of the region to stop the masses of dead fish from flowing further down the river.
Mercury levels ‘far below permissible maximum’
Also on Friday, the governor of Poland's western Lubuskie province, Władysław Dajczak, dismissed reports by some German and Polish news outlets that the Oder contained excessive levels of mercury.
“Today the Regional Environmental Protection Inspectorate confirmed that mercury levels in the Oder are much lower than the permissible maximum,” Dajczak told a news conference, warning against “fake news.”
Mercury is toxic to people and animals, the PAP news agency noted.
Lab test results on Sunday evening at the earliest
Meanwhile, the State Research Institute (PIB) on Friday said it was still waiting for samples of the dead fish from the Oder, according to PAP.
The institute added that the first laboratory test results could be available no earlier than Sunday evening.
‘Polluters must be severely punished’
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday condemned the suspected pollution of the Oder as “extremely outrageous," saying that those responsible for the contamination and mass deaths of fish must be “severely punished.”
The Polish Waters company has urged local residents and tourists not to enter the river, not to catch fish and to keep dogs away from the Oder, reporters were told.
Meanwhile, the Regional Environmental Protection Inspectorate in the southwestern city of Wrocław reported the case to prosecutors, requesting an investigation into a possible "crime against the environment," the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, gazetaprawna.pl