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Environmental Protection in
Krakow.
Poland has
adopted the environmental standards of the
European Union or stricter in the run-up to membership.
Environmentalists have always been
particularly sensitive to air quality in Krakow. Monitoring stations in every part of the city
constantly watch concentration of all principal
pollutants in atmosphere. Yet street panels that used to display
results in real time are long gone as air pollution has stayed
consistently low in the recent decade against
acceptable air-quality standards.
Dismal
ecological record of the communist era.
Forced
industrialization under the communist rule degraded the
environment in many parts of Poland, including Krakow.
Particularly emissions of sulfur dioxide and other gases as well
as fine particulate matter reached levels hazardous to people
and damaging to historical buildings. Also water pollution and
contamination of the land alarmed environmentalists. With the
fall of communism the situation changed abruptly. In the early
1990s most of the polluter plants in Krakow and its environs
closed and the rest have been reined in. The government
introduced strict environmental regulations and has been able to
enforce them.
Current
pollution in Krakow.
Throughout
the whole year 2008 every part of Krakow managed
to meet the air-quality standards. Fine particulate matter stayed within the range
of the acceptable
concentration. And the sulfur dioxide,
responsible for acid rain, stayed in Krakow’s
central Grand Square at half the level
UNESCO allows for its World Heritage Sites. Air quality in
central Krakow has kept on improving for years as the
city scraped most of its dirty industries and replaced coal
heating with the gas one.
In
the recent years both the local government and residents have
been mostly concerned about municipal waste management and
recycling.
Krakow
– population and industry combined – produces 51.5 cubic
hectometers of sewage a year (2007), almost all treated. Some
0.5 domestic sewage is dumped untreated because eight percent of
Krakow’s households remain outside the municipal sewage
system. Gas emissions in Krakow total 66,107 tons a year (2007)
including 16,514 tons of sulfur dioxide. As regards particulate
matter 99 percent of it stays retained in pollutant reduction
systems. Krakow generates some 2,723,200 tons of solid waste a
year (2007) of which 1,743,100 tons recycled, 795,200 ton
treated, and 184,900 temporarily stored.
Nature
sanctuaries of Krakow.
The
city boasts 4,840 hectares of legally protected areas of unique
environmental value within its limits. Nature reserves in Krakow
total just over 48 hectares while landscape parks cover 4,721
hectares of the city's area. Also, there are 192 monuments of
nature in Krakow.
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