The state meteorological and water management service, IMGW-PIB, has warned that the final weeks of summer will see Poland’s worst drought of recent years, with large parts of the country affected.
In response to the crisis, the government has moved to introduce a special “anti-drought” act that would devote over 150 million zloty to improving water retention and storage.
In recent years, many localities in Poland have struggled to cope with drier conditions, increasing water demand, and long-term hydrological mismanagement. In 2019, which was Poland’s hottest year on record, this resulted in water being limited or cut off entirely in 350 districts.
“Unfortunately, if we compare [the current] situation to recent years, the drought at this time of the year looks worse,” IMGW-PIB’s Paweł Staniszewski told the IAR press agency.
In April, the institute had already warned that conditions were emerging for Poland to experience one of its worst droughts in over one hundred years.
The country’s lowest water levels have been recorded in western, central and north-eastern Poland. IMGW-PIB has issued warnings about the dangers of the droughts in the catchment area of the Łyna River and the Vistula Lagoon, the Bauda and Pasłęka river basins, and the Wieprz and Bug basins.
W związku z występującymi niskimi przepływami wody zostały wydane informacje o niebezpiecznym zjawisku dotyczącym suszy hydrologicznej dla: zlewni Łyny i Zalewu Wiślanego, zlewni rzeki Baudy i Pasłęki (warmińsko-mazurskie) oraz zlewni Wieprza i Bugu (lubelskie).#susza #hydro pic.twitter.com/9pXPjQ6rf9
— IMGW-PIB METEO POLSKA (@IMGWmeteo) August 18, 2020
In response to shortages, Polish municipalities in the affected areas have been forced to adapt, introducing bans on watering gardens, filling swimming pools and washing cars, reports Onet.
In the central town of Skierniewice, which has almost 50,000 inhabitants, last year water was switched off in taps completely for a number of days after reserves failed to meet demand.
To ease the shortage, municipal authorities provided 10-litre water containers for residents and opened public water outlets in the town. This year, in anticipation of problems, the town had already decided to divert water from swimming pools and encourage citizens to change their gardening habits by closing off water to allotments.
“Poland is a country with little water. Hardly anyone knows about it,” a local official in Skierniewice told Onet. “However, last year showed that this problem is very serious. It is reaching an increasing area of Poland.”
In response to growing concerns, on Monday the government proposed a special “anti-drought” act, which aims to accelerate the implementation of projects to aid water retention and storage.
The Ministry of Marine Economy and Inland Navigation, which is responsible for the bill, estimates that the investment process for such projects could be shortened by up to 180 days through streamlined procedures for environmental permissions and shorter waiting times for decisions in administrative proceedings.
The ministry estimates that the costs of minimising the effects of the drought will come to 154.7 million zloty (€35 million) over the next three years, which it aims to cover by expanding water retention taxes.
There is currently a tax for “the loss of natural retention as a result of surface sealing” paid by owners of real estate of up to 3,500 square metres, and built over in at least 70% of the space, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.
The new rules would extend the tax to owners of real estate starting at 600 square metres, but fees will remain contingent on the extent to which the developments in the area aid water retention. As a result, the tax would be paid by 20 times more entities.
At the start of July the government also launched a new programme, “My Water”, that provides subsidies of up to 5,000 zloty (€1,100) for households to build water-retention systems to help alleviate both droughts and floods.
At the end of April, President Andrzej Duda appealed to the public and farmers to act “rationally” in their use of water in order to maintain supplies for the remainder of the year. He also promised farmers – who are particularly affected by water shortages – that they would receive state support.
Among various other measures to be taken by the government in response to the crisis, Duda announced that nine large storage reservoirs are to be built, as well as 30 smaller ones.
Main image credit: Justin Scott/Pexels
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
