Mandatory inspections of septic tanks and domestic sewage treatment plants. And municipalities have nowhere to pour sewage

• "Water and sewage management outside the boundaries of the agglomeration" is a program of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Its announcement was to take place at the turn of June and July, so we can expect it in a few days.
• Meanwhile, the Union of Rural Communes of the Republic of Poland is not satisfied with the provisions of the program. Its chairman Stanisław Jastrzębski, in a letter to the president of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management Dorota Zawadzka and vice-president Robert Gajda, writes that the amount included therein is a drop in the ocean of the needs of rural areas in terms of sewage management.
• ZGWRP postulates increasing the planned value of the indicator of achieving the goal to at least 25 thousand PE. The Union also requests increasing the program budget to PLN 1 billion and introducing the option of 95 percent loan cancellations.

According to the Association of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland, the current level of sanitation in rural areas is around 37-38% . This means that over 60% of such areas still do not have an organized water and sewage management.

For many years, a situation has been created in which sewage in rural communes is managed properly only partially, and in urban communes - practically in its entirety. What in cities constitutes technological evolution and replacement of infrastructure at a marginal level is currently unattainable in rural areas, and the situation is very bad.

- we read in the letter from the ZGW RP to the presidents of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.

The letter is placed under the article

The Association reminds us that currently, municipalities are required to control the management of sewage, including cesspools and domestic sewage treatment plants, and in the case of flagrant violations, they face very high penalties. Meanwhile, municipalities do not have collection points where this sewage could be discharged. The problem is growing, because in some treatment plants there are not even discharge points. The situation is not improved by the investment provisions included in the KPO, which only allow for investment in individual connections and domestic sewage treatment plants.

The existing situation requires immediate action on the part of municipalities , consisting in the modernization and expansion of existing sewage treatment plants and, in extreme cases, the construction of new installations operating on the basis of more efficient and cheaper sewage treatment technologies.

- says the union.

Let us recall that the aim of the new priority programme "Water and sewage management outside the agglomeration boundaries" is to improve the state of water and sewage management outside the agglomeration boundaries included in the National Municipal Sewage Treatment Programme (KPOŚK). The beneficiaries will be local government units and their associations as well as entities providing public services as part of the implementation of local government units' own tasks. The budget of the programme, which will be implemented in the years 2025-2030, is to amount to PLN 100 million.

As part of the program implementation, two indicators were adopted to assess the degree of improvement of the municipal wastewater treatment system. The number of additional people using the improved wastewater treatment - the planned value is at least 10,500 PE (equivalent number of inhabitants - ed.). The capacity of devices and facilities after modernization - the planned value is at least 2,500 PE

- the press office of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management informed at the beginning of June.

ZGWRP would like to make the following adjustments to the program assumptions:

• increasing the planned value of the target achievement indicator to at least 25,000 PE.
• increasing the program budget to PLN 1 billion.

The Fund announces that the investments will be financed in the form of preferential loans , and the co-financing will amount to 100 percent of eligible costs . The minimum loan amount will be PLN 300 thousand , with interest WIBOR 3M, not less than 2 percent per annum.

The loan may be granted for a period not longer than 15 years , provided that in justified cases resulting from the specific nature of the project or the beneficiary, the financing period may be different, but not longer than 25 years.

In this provision, ZGWRP postulates that when determining the partial cancellation of a loan, the now outdated "G" indicator (tax revenues per capita - the indicator was valid until December 31, 2024 - ed.) be replaced with an indicator of the commune's level of wealth.

According to the announcements of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, the maximum level of loan cancellation is to be 50% . The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management of the Republic of Poland believes that if the appropriate conditions are met, it should reach up to 95% .