As water-related disasters mount, experts push for early warning systems

Abstract

In mid-2022, a toxic algal bloom began to quickly spread through the Oder River, which in part straddles the border between Germany and Poland. The algae, Prymnesium parvum, normally lives in the brackish waters near coastlines. But fed by salty run-off from industrial sites, and made more concentrated by low water levels, it enveloped huge stretches of one of Europe’s longest waterways.