COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CN) — Oslo Fjord is slowly turning into a graveyard for fish and others species, and efforts to keep it clean have fallen short, the Norwegian Environment Agency concluded in a report published on Tuesday.
The agency evaluated efforts by municipalities, agriculture and state authorities under a five-year action plan, which began in 2021, to clean the 107-kilometer (66-mile) Oslo Fjord, which connects Norway’s capital of Oslo with Skagerrak neighboring the North Sea.
Most urgent, the agency says, is a need for nitrogen purification plants and safeguards against agricultural runoff that pollutes the fjord.
Nitrogen from urine has proved a major challenge for Oslo Fjord. Only around 10 out of 50 sewage treatment plants currently have plans to clean for nitrogen. Some of the nitrogen also stems from agricultural autumn plowing. The influx of nutrients creates dangerous blooms of algae in breeding areas for marine wildlife.
“Drainage, fisheries, agriculture and land management in the coastal zone in particular are four areas where the state, the municipalities and the county councils must step up their pace in order to implement measures if they are to be able to achieve the goals in the plan to improve the environmental condition of the Oslo Fjord,” said Ellen Hambro, director of the Norwegian Environment Agency in a press release.
The report also recommends that the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries consider implementing fishing bans in several areas. An overall need for stricter national guidelines for land management “should come into force as early as autumn 2024,” Hambro said.
In response to the status report, Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Norwegian minister of climate and environment, noted that the paper included significant efforts being made to save the fjord while admitting that preservation is taking too long.
“We see that the implementation of several important measures is too late. The work to help us pick up the pace and improve conditions in the Oslo Fjord is a high priority in the government,” Eriksen said in a press release.
Investigations by Norway’s Geological Institute have also found extensive amounts of environmental toxins, mercury and other heavy metals in the fjord, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
Around 1.6 million people live in the 26 coastal municipalities surrounding Oslo Fjord. The population is expected to increase to two million by 2050, putting further pressure on the area, according to the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
Norway is not the only Scandinavian country experiencing dead waters. In Neighboring Denmark, marine life is suffocating also in part because of nitrogen from agricultural activity resulting in more algae.
Here, Magnus Heunicke, environmental minister of Denmark, pledged to “use all possible tools” to save vulnerable water areas in Denmark.
Follow @LasseSrensen13
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