The state of sewage system economics in rural areas in Poland

Infrastructure is the basis of economic activities both in urban and in ruralareas. It is also one of main conditions for improving quality of life. Among itsmost important elements are: water delivery system, as well as sewage treatmentnetwork and sewage treatment plants. These devices should create one compositetechno-economical system. Non-integrated water delivery contributes to biggerwaste of water, and without connection to integrated sewage treatment systems, itcan be a serious threat to the environmentIn Poland, and in rural areas particularly, this situation is highly unsatisfactory.In 2007, share of population connected to water network in rural areas was73.3%, while for sewage network is was only 21.3%. In many communes, thisshare was even less than 10%. One can mention a few reasons of this state,mainly: lack of sufficient investment for 40 years after the 2nd World War, bigwater deficit in rural areas (brought about by droughts and thus, big reduction ordecline of water level in shallow homestead wells, being a main water source), bigdispersion of rural settlements in the country, limiting economies of scaleachievement, and lack of resources available for local authorities.The latter, having not enough resources for infrastructure development,made a decisions to concentrate on water system firstly, while more costly wastemanagement was ...