The State of Environment in Poland

The State of Environment in Poland

The state of Poland’s environment has been on the forefront of the European Environment Agency since the ejection of the communist regime in the country. The Polish government together with the help of non-governmental organizations are putting a lot of effort into combating environmental pollution of its country. The core cause of the dilapidation of the environment is the high rates of deforestation during the World War II, where four million acres of forest were destroyed, mining activities (such as those highlighted by Gąsiorek et al (2017) in Cracow and Katowice Voivodship which release a lot of dust and harmful metals such as zinc, Sulphur. Manganese, phenol, lead and their oxides.), and the high rates of acidification in the region. However, Durka et al (2017) confirms that the environmental agency in the country has proved to take control of the environment since it has shown improved environmental status in terms of decreased Green House Gases (GHGs) emission, noise pollution, ionization radiations, air pollution, industrial waste as well as increased protection of the country’s biodiversity. Pursuing this further, Poland met its target in reducing the emission of GHGs as agreed in the Kyoto protocol and had a surplus of 24% (“Poland country briefing – The European environment — state and outlook 2015”, 2018).

In the past two decades, Poland has been rated as one of the countries in Europe with very high rates of air pollutions since its ratings exceed the limits of the World Health Organization. According to the global organization, WHO, the cities in Europe most affected by smog tally up to 50 cities and Poland itself has 33 of them. According to Durka et al (2017), the excessive PM10 concentrations in these cities might have been escalated due to the fact that most of the cities are located in mountains and river valleys where the pollutants find it hard to disperse. Furthermore, the numerous industries in the cities, for instance in Krakow, is an added factor of the high concentration of GHGs. However, in terms of water management, discharges of industrial waste (which includes phosphorus and nitrogen discharges) into rivers has reduced though clean and safe surface water in some areas is insufficient. Moreover, according to (“Poland country briefing – The European environment — state and outlook 2015”, 2018), noise pollution has also increased in Poland due to the increased number of vehicles on the roads which in turn increase the emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere.

The issue of environmental safety is of a great concern not only to the polish but also to the globe due to the aspect of global warming and the targets of the world towards reducing the emission of GHGs which in turn deplete the ozone layer. The Polish government is very ambitious in reducing the rates of pollution in its country because it is aware of the harmful effects that emanate with the pollution. Durka et al (2017) asserts that these effects range from agriculture, tourism, industrial development up to health. For instance, air and water pollution causes health problems such as lung and cardiovascular complications. Health organizations state that forty-eight thousand deaths in Poland every year are caused by poor air quality. According to a recent survey, 5% of the polish population was found to be affected by the pollution annually while almost 50% was affected by the daily exposures. In the same context, the release of the GHGs into the atmosphere causes acid rain thus contaminating the soil that is used for agricultural purposes (Durka et al, 2017). Also, pollution leads to destruction of soil micro-organisms due to soil pollution, overgrowth of toxic algae in water, destruction of habitat for aquatic animals and destruction of the ecosystem.

In the light of these challenges that the Polish government is facing, it ought to come up or have come up with solutions in order to fight this disaster. For instance, it has built wind turbines and biogas digesters in order to produce clean energy and improve the atmospheric air condition. Due to the energy policies by the European Union, the Polish power companies have been forced to shift their investments from nuclear and coal energy to offshore wind farms, for instance, the Margonin and Karscino wind farm. All the wind farms in the country produce at least 11 GW.h summing up to more than 7% of the electricity production. Moreover, to fight the insufficiency of clean surface water, the government in collaboration with a certain consortium has built a 640 million-dollar water project to increase water supply in Warsaw which discharges half-million cubic meters of clean water per day. Also, the Polish government has planned to spend more than eight billion dollars in fighting smog by 2028 as well as curbing the importation of low-quality coal. In order to fight deforestation in the country, the government has come up with tough laws on logging after it was threatened to pay €100,000 daily by the European Court of Justice if it failed to act on logging (Mathew, 2018).

In conclusion, although the Polish government is doing whatever it takes in fighting environmental pollution it should not relax in bombarding with the pollution puzzle but rather put more efforts in creating a good environment for its citizens and the generations to come.  Massive awareness should be done by the environmental agencies and tough laws imposed on the industries concerning GHGs emission. By doing this, it will reduce the number of deaths witnessed by the society as well as attracting more investors into the country. Moreover, it will help the whole world in fighting global warming which is imposing a lot of dangers around the globe.

References

Durka, P., Struzewska, J., & Kaminski, J. W. (2017, April). 4 years of PM10 pollution in Poland-observations and modelling. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 19, p. 15812).

Gąsiorek, M., Kowalska, J., Mazurek, R., & Pająk, M. (2017). Comprehensive assessment of heavy metal pollution in topsoil of historical urban park on an example of the Planty Park in Krakow (Poland). Chemosphere, 179, 148-158.

Matthew Day. (2018). Poland defiant despite two-week warning to stop illegal deforestation or be fined €100,000 a day. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/21/poland-defiant-despite-two-week-warning-stop-illegal-deforestation/

Poland country briefing – The European environment — state and outlook 2015. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/countries/poland