Wodociąg jako istotny element infrastruktury technicznej wsi

The social and economic transformations taking part in villages, and especially a growing concern about persona] health and hygiene, equipment of houses with internal sanitary facilties and intensification of agricultural production (particularly animal breeding) produce a rapidly growing demand for water supplied by means of a collective or local water-supply systems. Meanwhile, the development of this system, and especially of network systems, is highly unsatisfactory in villages. This is primarily due to a strong dispersal of village settlements, structure of villages and long years of negligence in this respect after the war. A more pronounced progress in this field did not occur until 1965, and particularly during the last decade. In 1970 only 12.2% of flats in villages were equipped with water-supply systems and 5.8% with bathrooms. In 1988 these figures rose to 65.8% (of which - 29.6% of network water supply) and 50.7% respectively. In 1993 they were estoimated at 72.7% and 58.6%. These propostions still fall considerably behind those in towns and, moreover, they are considerably differentiated spatially. One of the main causes of such differentiation, apart from the negligence of post war period, are different traditions in particular regions of Poland. The administrative provinces in the north-west of Poland and those of Katowice, Bielsko and Opole (fig. 5) can boast the highest share of fiats equipped with water supply systems exceeding 85%. The lowest share under 60% is recorded by the central-eastern part of Poland and especially the provinces of Radom (43.8%) and Siedlce (47.0%). Using wells has become here a dominant system of provision with water, which hardly contributes to hygiene and economic progress. Moreover, the quality of water taken from the well very often does not fulfil standards of drinking water.