Summary:

The article presents the state of selected elements of municipal infrastructure in rural areas in Poland as per provinces. The level of infrastructure in individual provinces was described using five elements: house water connections, house sewers of combined sewer system, individual rural sewage treatment plants, landfill sites and water treatment plants. The above mentioned analysis is based on comparable parameters, i.e. reduced to a “common denominator”, such as the number of house water connections, house sewers of combined sewer system and the number of rural individual treatment plants were converted to 1000 houses in the individual area, whereas landfill sites and water treatment plants were converted to 100 thousand inhabitants of the province. The evaluation of municipal infrastructure in rural areas in individual provinces used data provided by the Main Statistical Office as of the end of 2005. The paper attempts to compare individual provinces with respect to their municipal infrastructure. Considering house water connections number, the situation was best in the opolskie and dolnośląskie provinces and the worst in the malopolskie and podkarpackie. If combined sewerage of the whole area is taken into consideration, the greatest number of water house connections was registered in the pomorskie and zachodniopomorskie provinces and lowest in the lubelskie and łódzkie provinces. As also the number of individual sewage treatment plants in these areas was analysed. In this respect kujawsko-pomorskie and dolnośląskie provinces fell out the best and świętokrzyskie the worst. Further the Author considered the problem of landfill sites. The greatest number was registered in the podlaskie and the smallest in the śląskie and malopolskie provinces. Considered were also water treatment plants, the highest number of which was located in the zachodniopomorskie and warminsko-mazurskie provinces and the least in the śląskie province. Rural areas are characterized by a poorer than cities level of infrastructure. Rural areas is strongly diversified locally and regionally, therefore it is more difficult to extend the objects of municipal infrastructure in these areas. However, despite these negative characteristics a dynamic development of water supply and sewage disposal systems has been observed during the last decade. Provision of technical infrastructure lowers the cost of subsequent economic investments which is a driving force behind the increasing attractiveness of rural areas.