Mateusz Morawiecki made the declaration in a Facebook post on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He stated: “The case of the pollution of the Oder is extremely outrageous. In the era of climate change, it is vital that we look after the environment and the state of Poland’s water resources.”
Morawiecki added: “And so we’ll do everything to make sure that the issue is properly investigated and explained, and that those guilty are severely punished.”
He said officials including Deputy Infrastructure Minister Grzegorz Witkowski would visit "the disaster zone" at his request later on Thursday.
'Polluters won’t go unpunished': PM
The prime minister declared that the government was working to reduce the impact of the pollution and "safeguard the area and its residents" as the Main Environmental Protection Inspectorate (GIOŚ) investigated the disaster, the PAP news agency reported.
“Polish rivers are our national treasure and future, and so all state agencies are working with the utmost intensity on the matter,” Morawiecki said. “Polluters won’t go unpunished!”
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced on Thursday that territorial army soldiers and other troops would help clean the river.
“They will also be on standby to perform other tasks,” Błaszczak said.
'One of the biggest ecological disasters in Poland in years': environmentalist
Large numbers of dead fish were first spotted floating in the Oder near the southwestern city of Oława in late July, according to officials.
The waters have since turned murky and foul-smelling, news outlets reported.
So far, some 5 tons of dead fish have been hauled out of the Oder near Oława, according to the state Polish Waters (WP) company.
Mass fish die-offs have also been spotted some 200 km down the river, near the western city of Głogów and the village of Cigacice, the PAP news agency has reported.
Marta Gregorczyk, an activist with the global environmental group Greenpeace, on Wednesday estimated that some nine tons of dead fish had been pulled out of the Oder, saying that “it’s one of the biggest ecological disasters in Poland in years.”
By Thursday, the amount of dead fish removed from the river had reached 10 million tonnes, Polish Waters said.
The state 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 office of the Main 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, polsatnews.pl
Click on the audio player above for an interview with Piotr Nieznański, Conservation Policy Director at WWF Poland.