The Condition of the Sanitary Infrastructure in the Ryki District in Poland and the Need for its Development

The aim of this paper was to present the current state and the need for development of the sanitary infrastructure in the communes of the Ryki District located in the Lublin Voivodeship. The Ryki District encompasses 1 urban Commune – Dęblin, 1 urban-rural Commune – Ryki and 4 rural communes: Kłoczew, Nowodwór, Stężyca and Ułęż. The paper is based on the data from the surveys conducted in all the afore-mentioned communes in 2016. In the whole district on average 71.3% of the population used the water supply network, while 42% of the inhabitants were able to discharge wastewater to the sewage system. Within the area of the Ryki District, 5 collective wastewater treatment plants with a capacity exceeding 5 m3/d functioned in 2016. The households which were not connected to the sewage network discharged wastewater mainly to non-return tanks. About 440 household sewage treatment plants were found in the surveyed communes. The overwhelming majority of such small objects in the discussed district were activated sludge systems (92%). The research carried out in 2016 proved a strong need to develop the current state of the sanitary infrastructure in the Ryki District. A particular emphasis should be placed on the wastewater management by connecting the inhabitants of urban areas to a joint sewage disposal system. Ecological awareness must be raised so as to encourage people to invest in household wastewater treatment plants, which should be used in the areas with scattered development.