My girlfriend's cousin lives on this river, in Wrocław. It's causing quite a political scandal, with the PiS leadership accusing the opposition of causing it (of course, this is blatantly untrue) https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/lubuskie/spozniona-reakcja-w-spra...
I am living in apartment block next to this river in Wrocław.
Oder was always considered dirty river here. On hot days it smells like something rotten, its absolutely defeating to cross it by bridge and I thank god my apartment’s windows are on the other side.
But people still fish in it in center of city. I can only hope they do it for sport and not for food.
I am also living in an apartment block in Wrocław next to this river. I was also born here and what you describe is a gross misrepresentation. While it is not considered clean enough for swimming, you cannot actually smell it going over any bridge. Crowds of people spend evenings and weekends in outdoor pubs right on the banks of Oder and seem unfazed. None of my friends or family has ever mentioned being overwhelmed or even feeling any sort of odor.
I wonder how is it possible to have so different impressions of the same place? I also wonder what makes you want to discredit the place where you live so much and create false image of it in other people's heads?
I invite you to cross it by either Sikorski bridge or Dmowski bridge when its 30 degree celcius on summer day. It absolutely reeks. The stench goes down with temperature, so I guess its okay when you are drinking at Słodowa or past Grunwald bridge at later hour?
Well, it is a rather small river and the first major conglomeration is Ostrava with a population of 900,000 and a shitton of heavy industry to this day.
On the other hand still having some non-offshore industry (DE, CZ, PL, etc) has many advantages too. Especially in the coming years.
Having industry doesn't necessarily mean destroying the environment. Regulations regarding emissions exist for a reason. But as long as industrialists are allowed to externalize the costs for "doing business" in a scheme to socialize the negative effects and privatize earnings we are in a bad position.
Clean up the mess you produce should be a basic and decent course of action. Not only for us humans but for every human endeavor.
