Stefanie and Norbert Bartel run a farm and bed-and-breakfast in eastern Germany, a short walk from the Oder and opposite the Polish town of Porzecze. The river’s fertile banks draw cyclists and birdwatchers, and the Bartels see connecting people with nature as central to their work. Their place has become a meeting point for local environmentalists united in one aim: to keep the Oder’s landscape and biodiversity intact.
The Oder faces mounting pressures from river canalization and climate change. Intense downpours cause the river to burst its banks, while prolonged heat and drought lower water levels, threatening agriculture, shipping and wildlife. In summer 2022 the river suffered a major ecological crisis when a mass fish kill — later linked to a toxic golden-algae bloom — devastated aquatic life. Local residents, fishers and activists from both countries removed about 360 tons of dead fish and other organisms from the waters.
Scientists traced the bloom to saline, warm discharges from mining operations, conditions compounded by low flows and high temperatures. The catastrophe and the perceived slow response from authorities spurred cross-border collaboration. “We didn’t have a lot of contact with the Polish side, but with the die-off, we got to know one another,” says Norbert Bartel.
The Bartels belong to Save the Oder, one of 26 local initiatives across Germany, Poland and Czechia that form the Time for the Oder alliance. Launched after the catastrophic floods of 1997, the alliance aims to strengthen cooperation among local actors. The 2022 disaster reminded all three countries that river health — and responsibility — do not stop at national borders.
Activists warn the root problems remain. Holger Seyfarth of Save the Oder says factories in Poland have long released saline wastewater, and farmers still use the river for sewage disposal. Poland lacks specific legal bans on saline or sewage discharges into rivers, and until 2022 monitoring of the Oder’s water quality was patchy and not consistently shared.
In response, citizen science initiatives have stepped in. Seyfarth and colleague Sascha Groddeck developed a monitoring project using AI and low-cost sensors to make water-quality data transparent. In 2024 Groddeck tested a prototype salinity monitoring box while kayaking from Wroclaw to Berlin; his results showed elevated salinity downstream from the KGHM copper mines in Glogow, some 250 kilometers upstream of the Bartels’ farm. Experts later raised the alarm that excessive salinity remains an issue, largely due to mining waste, and new data indicate many of the conditions that triggered the 2022 die-off persist despite increased official monitoring.
Polish activists express frustration at what they see as insufficient governmental responsibility and low public outrage. Dorota Chmielowiec-Tyszko of EkoFundacja says activist efforts often focus on emergency responses. Still, her NGO has achieved important flood-prevention measures in recent decades: moving dikes, restoring natural retention areas and creating Poland’s largest dry polder.
A legal victory by Polish and German groups halted ongoing canalization works on parts of the Oder after a Warsaw court ruling, yet the physical work has continued. “What are we supposed to do?” asks Radoslaw Gawlik of EKO-UNIA, who pushed for the judicial review. He says the ruling’s enforcement is now a matter for government authorities.
Cross-border cooperation faces limits. Theresa Wagner from Germany’s BUND notes structural problems — Polish NGOs get little funding, while German groups benefit from stronger organizational structures but are hampered by slow bureaucracy. Activists are often volunteers with regular jobs; Stefanie Bartel stresses that while workshops and idea exchanges are valuable, implementing projects requires professional, funded staff.
Nonetheless, cooperation has created momentum and raised public awareness. A petition to grant the Oder legal personhood in Poland drew nearly 100,000 signatures, a sign, says lawmaker Anita Kucharczyk-Dziedzic, of growing public interest in a healthy river.
There are also concrete trilateral successes. The EURENI project (2021–2025), funded by Germany’s Environment Ministry with more than €370,000, linked NGOs across the three countries, fostering dialogue, training and joint planning for the Oder basin. For Chmielowiec-Tyszko, the project’s lasting value is the education and cross-border networks that will sustain activism beyond the project’s lifetime.
Since the 2022 disaster, Polish environmentalists now regularly take part in roundtable discussions with political and industrial stakeholders — a new, more inclusive format for Poland and a meaningful step forward. Activists say such engagement demonstrates that pressure on political actors can produce change, but it requires patience, endurance and sustained cooperation. Despite obstacles — legal, financial and political — groups on both banks of the Oder are finding ways to work together and to push for the river’s long-term protection.
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan
This article is part of a four-part series on crossborder civil society in Europe conducted with the support of Journalismfund Europe.
