Workshop on the sustainable water and wastewater management in Karpacz

Workshop on the sustainable water and wastewater management in Karpacz

Dates:

2010

Funding:

The Sendzimir Foundation

Wojewódzki Fundusz Ochrony Środowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej we Wrocławiu

Contact person:

Jakub Damurski

Countries:

Poland

Description – essential information

For the second time, the Centre for Systems Solutions organized a workshop on the sustainable water and wastewater management. The previous edition of the project took place in 2006 in the village of Dziewin, near Ścinawa, Poland. It had received very positive feedback, inspiring us to continue our work in this context.

The workshop held in 210 in Karpacz was slightly different and more practical in nature. It was organized in Wroclaw Ecological Station “Storczyk”, belonging to the University of Wrocław, where a garden sewage treatment plant had been recently built. The location for the plant had been chosen for practical reasons: the station building is located far from the other buildings and is separated from them by the Łomniczka River Valley. Moreover, throughout the year there are significant differences in the number of people who visit the “Storczyk” station, and in close proximity, there is also the protected area of the Karkonosze National Park. All those factors, as well as the low cost of the construction and operation, had contributed to the ultimate decision of constructing a hydrophyte sewage treatment plant.

The project aimed at highlighting the benefits connected with the construction of the wastewater treatment plant and at promoting ecological knowledge. The functionality of the plant, together with the external causes, were the reasons why the workshop, originally scheduled for autumn 2009 was postponed to May 2010. Unluckily, just at that time, Poland was struck by the flooding, and therefore only a small group of participants appeared in Karpacz. That does not mean, however, that the workshop proved a failure – quite the contrary.

The most valuable outcome of the project was that its participants gained knowledge, both theoretical and practical. The participants learned a lot about the garden sewage treatment plants. They also had an opportunity to better understand the problems that Karpacz community encounters in the context of water and sewage management.