Summary:

The paper evaluates the technical condition of 70 water supply networks situated in rural and urban-rural communes in Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian voivodeships. Because of large variation of the considered waterworks in terms of their size, they were divided into five groups according to the number of residents served by the waterworks. The age and material structure of the water supply system was characterized, followed by the evaluation of their technical condition based on data from the end of 2009, derived from the operational records of individual waterworks. The analysis of each water supply indicator included their structural division, i.e. the transit, main and distribution pipes as well as water supply connections were analyzed. Another aspect of the analysis was to examine the structure of damage to the pipes. The conducted analysis revealed that the pipes at the age of 25 years dominated in the age structure of the water supply networks, which, given the material they were made of, shows that in most cases they were halfway through their technical timeline. The vast majority of the analyzed water supply networks was constructed of thermoplastic materials and to a much lesser extent - of steel. Cast iron and asbestos cement constituted a few percent share of the material structure of pipes. The damage intensity to water pipes in the Subcarpathian voivodeship was in most cases somewhat lower than in the Lesser Poland voivodeship, reflecting their better technical condition. Unlike in the Lesser Poland voivodeship, the average failure rate of various types of water pipes in the Subcarpathian voivodeship, was at similar level as the national average calculated for small waterworks. Failure rate of the analyzed pipes (with the exception of transit and main pipes in the Lesser Poland voivodeship), meets the requirements of the European standards. There is a close correlation between the type of damage to the pipes and their material structure. Transit, main and distribution pipes, predominantly built of thermoplastic materials were the most susceptible to cracks and fractures, while water supply connections (largely made of steel) were the most susceptible to corrosion damage.