Poland needs to invest in improving quality of drinking water

The EU directive on the quality of drinking water obliges Poland to plan the investments required to improve water safety. Work on creating such a plan is ongoing. According to  Jolanta Olbracht, manager of the water team at Arcadis, the quality of drinking water in Poland is not so bad, but there are still areas where the losses of water taken from the environment reach 50 percent. The aim of the directive is to ensure access to high-quality tap water also for vulnerable people, including migrants and the homeless.

“The losses of water obtained from the environment have been described by the European Union as quite significant, hence the directive introduced in December last year obliges the Member States to analyze these losses, especially in drinking water. In Poland, this problem is not big, because in larger cities losses only reach about 5 percent of water collected from the environment. However, there are areas where they amount to as much as 50 percent. It depends on the materials of the water supply networks and the quality of these water supply systems,” Jolanta Olbracht explained.

The Ministry of Infrastructure implements the project "Investment program in the scope of quality improvement and reduction of losses of water intended for human consumption". Its purpose is to identify priority areas and key investments required to improve water safety. The program is implemented mainly by the Arcadis company. It started at the end of October 2020 and will end in May this year.

(Newseria)