Flood in Poland. Mayor of Stronie Śląskie speaks about poor flow of information about the dam breach

– There was a lack of communication between us, Polish Waters, but also the crisis management staff. This information about the reservoir should have reached us. We should have full documentation, instructions on what to do in the event of a threat to the dry reservoir, which filled up on September 14 – said Dariusz Chromiec in an interview with TVN24.

The Mayor of Stronie Śląskie also referred to the issue of monitoring the water level and what was happening at the dam between September 14 and 15.

– Reporting was done between 14 and 15 September. Polish Waters provided us with the status every hour, only the water level in the reservoir. I spoke with the head of the Regional Water Management Authority in Kłodzko about what would happen if the water overflowed the embankments, and how much time we had for evacuation. I said that the evacuation was already underway, but I needed to know how long the embankments would hold. He told me that the situation was difficult. He spoke about stabilising the reservoir – emphasised the mayor.

Chromiec added that shortly after 1 a.m. “he received confirmation that the reservoir was stable, that there was an overflow through the masonry basin, and that the evacuation of the city had been properly ordered.” On Sunday (September 15), after 10:30 a.m., no one contacted him. He did not receive information that the embankment had been breached.

– There is a statement from Polish Waters that there was such information at 7 o'clock, but it did not reach us and my services did not confirm it. I did not have such information – admitted Dariusz Chromiec.

Read also: “We did not find such information”. Mayor of Kłodzko on how he found out about the approaching wave

In his opinion, the dam that was breached was showing its age and needed modernisation.

– It required modernization, reconstruction. The dam did not fulfill its role. It turned out that the overflow channels were not working. One flow channel is not enough. There was clearly no water release so that we could regulate it. It is an old hydrotechnical structure that simply wore out. The larger amounts of water that flowed into the reservoir caused the earthen embankments to fail – the mayor summed up.

This is not the first local government official to draw attention to the poor flow of information. Earlier, the mayor of Kłodzko, Michał Piszko, said that he did not receive information about the approaching wave from the services, but from a journalist. – I confirm that I received such information from one of the editors of the local portal a little after 12 o'clock. But I also could not fully believe this information – said Michał Piszko on TVN24, who did not learn about the burst dam in a nearby town – which resulted in the flooding of his town – from the district authorities or from Polish Waters.

– Polish Waters do not have alternative radio and satellite communication – admitted Joanna Kopczyńska, president of the Polish Waters Management Company, during a press conference on Thursday.

The heads of Wody Polskie admitted that the company does not have alternative communication, e.g. satellite or radio, such as the one available to, for example, the Police, Fire Department or GPPR. “Nobody simply bought it, nobody took care of it,” Kopczyńska said, adding that she has been dealing with the situation in Wody Polskie for only 8 months.

The President also noted that the authorities of Stronie Śląskie had been informed about the possibility of a dam breach as early as Saturday, September 14, at 10:52 p.m.

On Tuesday, Polish Waters issued a statement regarding the destruction of the dam in Stronie Śląskie. It was emphasized that the work carried out earlier on the reservoir in Stronie Śląskie could not have affected the stability of the dam structure and could not have contributed in any way to the destruction of the facility.

The statement by Wody Polskie presented the course of events from September 15, when the earthen dam of the dry reservoir in Stronie Śląskie on the Morawka stream was washed away. “On Sunday at around 10:35, due to the continuous pressure of water on the reservoir structure, the earthen dam was washed away and water poured through the facility in a completely uncontrolled manner. The reservoir in Stronie Śląskie was prepared for a flow of 70-80 m3/s, but it received a flood wave of 320 m3/s, i.e. four times greater. It should be emphasized that the exact causes of the reservoir failure must be investigated in detail,” it was reported.

Polish Waters also indicated that when the water overflowed the reservoir's earth dam, the crisis management centre in Stronie Śląskie was informed via the on-site city ​​guard“This was the only possible means of communication at that moment, as there was a complete lack of telephone and communication throughout the region. The water supervision in Kłodzko received unofficial information that the earthen dam of the reservoir in Stronie Śląskie had broken through at around 11:45. Unfortunately, this information could not be confirmed due to the lack of communication. It was not until 1:05 p.m. that this information was confirmed,” it was reported.

It was emphasized that until the loss of communication, the reservoir operators informed the crisis management center in Stronie Śląskie about the situation every hour. “In addition, the head of water supervision in Kłodzko informed the Mayor of Stronie Śląskie about the necessary evacuation already on Saturday, September 14 at 22:52. Information about the necessary evacuation of the population was also provided by the operator of the Stronie Śląskie dam on Sunday, September 15, just after 7:00 a.m.” – it was emphasized.

The Świdnica prosecutor's office is conducting an investigation into the breach of the earthen dam of the dry reservoir in Stronie Śląskie. After the dam burst on Sunday, September 15, the great flood devastated the city and other nearby towns. Prosecutors from Głogów are supervising an investigation into the threat of the flood embankments in Bartodzieje breaking, which was supposed to have happened on Friday and Saturday.

On Thursday, prosecutor Mariusz Pindera, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Świdnica, announced that the prosecutor's office would check whether there was a suspicion that the disaster at the dam in Stronie Śląskie was caused “in a culpable manner, as a result of human actions or omissions”. Prosecutor Pindera said that an investigation into this matter would most likely be launched in the near future.

“We are collecting documentation in this case from Polish Waters, local governments, and construction supervision authorities. We will also determine the technical issues related to the possibility of conducting an inspection of the dam and the surrounding area,” the prosecutor said.