Krakowskie Wodociągi is to repair the damage caused by an excavator working for the city company. Workers dug up the banks of the Vistula oxbow lake in Podgórki Tynieckie, devastated the greenery and pulled out trees from the water where birds were nesting and fish were spawning. Now the Waterworks has committed, among other things, to: for restoring vegetation, stocking the reservoir with fish and installing nesting boxes.
As we reported on Thursday, the Vistula oxbow lake in the area of Podgórki Tynieckie in Krakow was run over and dug up by an excavatorwho worked there on behalf of the Krakow Waterworks. Workers destroyed the greenery growing around the reservoir and pulled out trees from the water where birds were nesting and fish were spawning. Along with the branches, the excavator also pulled out, among others: fish, snails and mussels, some of which may be protected.
Employees of Polish Waters called to the scene stated that they had not issued permission for such activities. They notified the police and ordered the work to be stopped. The waterworks explained that they had a permit and the work was necessary to unblock the outlet from a nearby sewage treatment plant.
There will be stockings and nesting boxes
However, after Friday's meeting with representatives of the Regional Water Management Board (RZGW), the authorities of the municipal company undertook to repair the damage caused by the subcontractor's employees who devastated the banks of the oxbow lake.
“The decision was made to recreate the area taking into account all the necessary elements of the Vistula oxbow lake ecosystem in Podgórki Tynieckie,” said RZGW in Kraków in a press release.
As reported, the Waterworks has undertaken to prepare a land development project by the end of November. It will concern, among others, “restoration of high and low vegetation so as to limit the occurrence of invasive species” and unblocking the existing flow channel between the oxbow lake and the Vistula river bed.
The waterworks will also carry out stocking, as well as install an observation post and nesting boxes for birds.
The project prepared by the city company will have to be approved by Polish Waters “after the Waterworks of the City of Krakow had previously consulted the above solutions with the social side.” “After positive verification of the presented solutions, the bilateral working group will establish a schedule for the implementation of individual works at its meeting in December,” the statement said.
So far, we have not received a response from the Krakow police regarding the actions taken after notifying Wody Polskie. The Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection is to check by the end of November whether any environmental damage has occurred.
Main photo source: RZGW in Kraków