Freshwater - Why care? (Poland)

Poland is characterised by relatively limited water resources of around 1500 m³/year/capita, a large population and different types of urbanisation and land use patterns. The country’s water resources per capita, are low − representing only 36 % of the European average. Due to the limited water resources, it is difficult to supply water to some parts of Poland. Water-consuming industries, demographic processes and natural geographic and hydrographic conditions cause severe water deficits. There is also considerable variation in river water flow during periods of heavy rain and when there are large quantities of flood water, including run-off from the mountains in the south. All these factors impede the rational management of water, and the limited capacity of artificial reservoirs does not facilitate the elimination of the problems arising from periodic excesses and deficits of surface water. The main obstacle to supplying the population with water is the limited availability of high-quality water. However, the quantitative problems have decreased significantly over the last decade due to a large reduction in the volume of water consumed by industry and households.