Odra

The Oder River desalination plan was developed to improve the river's ecological status. The currently implemented Phase I of the Plan assumes an increase in the retention capacity of mining facilities by 2030 and the testing of innovative technologies that will help reduce desalination costs. The investments included in this phase will allow a significant reduction in the salinity of the Oder during the summer period, the most vulnerable season for the river: by 59% in Lower Silesia and by 14% in Upper Silesia.

In the 2025 season, the "golden alga” developed mainly in the Gliwice Canal and the nearby Farskie Lake in the Silesia region. Two blooms of this algae were recorded in the Gliwice Canal. Thanks to crisis management procedures, regular water monitoring, and the implementation of recommendations issued by the Interministerial Team for the Oder River, the "golden alga” did not enter the main channel of the Oder River in 2025, despite highly unfavourable hydrological conditions in the basin.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment is launching a recruitment drive for a pilot project of innovative technologies to reduce the salinity of the Oder River. The call for proposals, organised by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW), aims to support research into more energy-efficient methods of desalinating mine water and to test these methods under industrial conditions.

The Ministry of Climate and Environment is monitoring the situation on the Oder. It also provided the impetus for developing a system to manage the risk of toxic 'golden algae' blooms.

Dynamic model to enable industrial discharges to 'see each other' launched - summary of Oder inter-ministerial team meeting.

Systemic actions to protect against „golden algae” blooms.

After analysing the current monitoring data from the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection and meteorological forecasts, the Minister of Climate and Environment, Anna Moskwa, decided to convene the Crisis Management Team. The Team issued recommendations for specific remedial actions. The recommendations have been submitted to the Government Centre for Security.