Ministry of Environment

STRATEGY FOR USING ISPA FUND AS A SUBSIDIARY INSTRUMENT FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

December 1999

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION              3

2. CHANGES IN THE STATE OF ENVIRONMENT              4

2.1 Introduction              4

2.2 Water Supply              5

2.3 Wastewater              5

2.4 Air Quality              6

2.5. Solid Waste              6

3.              KEY FEATURES OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION POLICY              8

3.1 Introduction              8

3.2 Environmental Policy              8

4.              BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFRASTRUCTURE              11

4.1 Introduction              11

4.2 Water  Supply              11

4.3 Wastewater              11

4.3.1 Vistula and Odra river basins              11

4.4 Air Quality              12

4.5 Solid Waste              13

5. FINANCING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION INVESTMENTS              15

5.1 Introduction              15

6. BASIC CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF INVESTMENT TO BE CO-FINANCED FROM ISPA FUND              19

6.1 Introduction              19

6.2 Environmental goals for the years 2000-2002              21

6.3 Environmental protection goals for the years 2002-2006              22

7.              PRIORITY PROJECTS TO BE CO-FINANCED FROM ISPA FUND              23

7.1 Water Supply/Wastewater              23

7.2 Air Quality              25

7.3. Solid Waste              26

7.4 List of priority investments according to agglomerations              28

1. INTRODUCTION

The Republic of Poland, like nine other Central and Eastern European countries, is a candidate to a membership in the European Union (EU).  In preparation for its planned accession date of 1st January 2003, Poland is currently undertaking various measures to comply with the acquis communautaire.  In addition to the existing Phare programme, support will be provided by the EU through ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession) managed by the EU Commission (DGXVI and DGIA).  ISPA funds will be devoted to implementation of investments in environment and transport sectors, only and will operate most probably during the period of seven years (2000-2006). 

This document deals with the environmental protection sector. It establishes the strategy in Poland for identification and selection of projects which will be proposed to be supported within the ISPA instrument in the following areas: wastewater treatment and water supply, air quality, and waste management. The main focus for ISPA in the environment sector is on measures which enable beneficiary countries, including Poland, to comply with the objectives of the Accession Partnerships as well as with the priorities indicated in the National Programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis. It is assumed that in the field of environmental protection ISPA resources will be used for implementation in Poland of the requirements of the following directives:

·         Directive 80/778/EEC (with amendments) on drinking water, to be replaced in November 2003 with Directive 98/83/EC;

·         Directive 91/271/EEC on urban wastewater treatment;

·         Council Directive 96/62/EC on air quality assessment and management, together with the directives related to specific pollutants;

·         Directive 88/609/EC on Large Combustion Plants;

·         Directive 89/429/EEC on air pollution caused by the existing municipal waste incineration;

·         Directive 94/67/EC on hazardous waste incineration;

·         Directive 75/442/EEC on waste, so-called framework directive;

·         Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste;

·         ‘Landfill Directive’ (99/31/EC)

·         Directive 96/61/EC on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control.

Community assistance within the framework of ISPA may be granted in various forms (e.g. direct non-repayable grants, repayable aid, and others). ISPA beneficiaries will be public sector units, such as state enterprises acting in public interest, local communities (gminas) and municipal enterprises registered under commercial law but totally owned by local communities.  The rate of Community assistance granted under ISPA will in most cases amount to up to 75% of the total expenditure from public resources[1]. ISPA funds cannot be combined with any other Pre-Accession instruments, except for LIFE programme. All investments supported from ISPA must be economically efficient.  Social cost and benefit analysis must prove the net benefit for the society resulting from the investment. The total cost of each project will in principle be not less than Euro 5 million, although, in exceptional cases, projects with a total cost of less than Euro 5 million will also be considered.

ISPA may finance preliminary studies and technical support measures at 100% of the investment’s total cost (up to  2% of the total ISPA allocation), including:

1. Economic/financial feasibility studies,

2. Environmental Impact Assessments, according to EU rules,

3. Technical reviews, designs and cost analyses,

4. Assistance in the preparation of tender documentation,

5. Assistance in project management.

This document relates only to environmental protection problems, and in particular to water and sewer management, waste management and assuring appropriate quality of air. It consists of six parts:

1. Information on changes in the state of environment;

2. Information on provisions and goals of environmental protection policy;

3. Overview of environmental infrastructure;

4. Information on financing environmental projects;

5. Information on selection criteria for projects to be financed from ISPA;

6. List of priority areas in the field of  investment needs that is helpful in project selection.

2. CHANGES IN THE STATE OF ENVIRONMENT

2.1 Introduction

Poland is one of the larger countries in Europe with a territory measuring some 312,685 km2.  The country is subdivided into 16 voivodships (regions).

Poland has a population of around 38,600,000[2], with 65% living in urban areas. There are 42 cities with population of over 100,000.  Warszawa, the capital, is by far the largest city with a population of over 1,626,000, followed by Lodz (815,000), Krakow (740,000), Wroclaw (641,000), Poznan (580,000), Gdansk (462,000), Szczecin (419,000), Bydogoszcz (387,000), Lublin (356,000) and Katowice (350,000).

The most urbanised region is the Upper Silesian Industrial District, which contains eleven cities including Katowice with over 100,000 inhabitants.  There are also large clusters of towns and industrial settlements in Warsaw industrial district, Lodz industrial district, Gdansk-Gdynia district, and in Lower Silesia.

Rivers draining most of the country’s surface area (99.7%) flow into the Baltic Sea. The two largest rivers have their outlets in the Baltic Sea. They are:

1)     Vistula, which drains around 50% of Poland’s surface area, is 1,047 km long and has a total catchment area of 194,400 km2, 85% of which is within the Polish territory;

2)     Odra, which is 854 km long and has a total catchment area of 118,900 km2, 90% of which is situated within the Polish territory.

Warszawa, Krakow, Bydgoszcz and Gdansk lie in the catchment area of the Vistula river.  Lodz, Wroclaw, Poznan and Katowice lie in the catchment area of the Odra river.

During the period 1988-98, Poland has undertaken and implemented many environmental protection programmes, which have resulted in a significant improvement of the state of environment in the country.  Emissions of pollutants into the air and water have decreased, the area covered with legal nature protection has increased, and decisions on the adoption of several international environmental conventions have been taken. The improvement of the state of environment is the consequence not only of the decline in heavy industry’s activity, but also of the numerous capital-intensive investments undertaken by private and public institutions as well as of other measures implemented in accordance with the National Environmental Policy.

2.2 Water Supply

Currently, groundwater constitutes the main source of water for municipal supply, providing about 60% of the total volume of water abstracted (1282.7 hm3)[3], with the rest (1009.3 hm3) abstracted from surface water intakes (mostly from the rivers, and to a lesser degree – from artificial water reservoirs and lakes).  In the nineties water consumption decreased; in addition, a significant change of municipal water provision sources took place – share of water abstracted from surface waters has significantly decreased (in 1990 1527.9 hm3, i.e. 54% of water abstracted originated from surface waters). Abstraction from groundwater sources has decreased much less (in 1990 it amounted to 1476.7 hm3). This phenomenon is related to poor quality of surface waters in Poland – in 1997 none of the rivers monitored was classified as first class quality water, 0.5% was assigned the second class, 13.8% - third class, and 85.7% was considered to be beyond any standards. Quality of groundwater is generally higher than the quality of surface waters, although a certain percentage of these waters (some 17%) is significantly polluted.

The main sources of surface water pollution are untreated or inadequately treated wastewater discharges from urban areas, industrial discharges, and agricultural runoff. Deposition of pollution suspended in the air constitutes less significant source of surface water pollution. The main cause of groundwater pollution is infiltration of pollutants (industrial, agricultural and municipal) from soil surface.

2.3 Wastewater

The amount of municipal and industrial wastewater discharged into surface waters has decreased over the past 10 years, as shown in Table 2.3.1. Decrease of the amount of wastewater requiring treatment results from more rational use of water in households and industry, and decrease of the amount of untreated wastewater discharged occurred thanks to construction of approximately 7 000 new wastewater treatment plants during the period of 1988 – 98.

Since municipalities discharge five times more untreated wastewater than industrial sources, it is clear that urban wastewater has the potential to exert an enormous impact on water quality. Therefore, construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants has been attached a priority in the National Environmental Policy.

Table 2.1                            Wastewater discharges in the period 1988-97

[GUS 1990, GUS 1998]