Water surrounds us, it is the essential component of all living organisms and all the life on earth is inevitably connected with it. From times immemorial people used to settle close to water reservoirs (rivers, streams or lakes) aiming to have water resources and natural protection against attacks or wars, as well as abundance of food (fish). Only later paths joining subsequent villages changed into roads, small settlements became towns, which later turned into large city agglomerations which we know today. On the scale of Poland there are only several cities which are not situated close to rivers. These are: Katowice, Kielce, Koszalin, Leszno, Łódź, Radom, Siedlce and Wałbrzych. As far as their history is concerned these are relatively young cities and their establishment was conditioned by other factors. Currently they face grave problems of water deficiency. In cities the problem of water supply concerns mainly its purity, but in rural areas it is connected with considerable capital consumption because of greatly dispersed holdings. Formerly water had to be carried into houses in pots and subsequently a technical progress made possible its supply directly to households. This caused a rapid increase in water consumption. Further development through increasing the number ...
