7 Studies on, the Use and Protection of Springs in Poland
133
Fig. 7.15 The destroyed enclosing of ´
Zródło Joanny (the Joan Spring) in L˛ adek Zdrój (Region XII;
cf. Fig. 7.7) – photo A. Bartnik
available method that is permitted by law should be used, and any instance of illegal
new projects to reconstruct or to encase springs should be restricted, whereas existing
facilities of this type should be inspected, those more valuable should be provided
with legal protection and some other ones – simply taken apart. There is a lot to
do for various formal or informal interdisciplinary social groups and organizations,
scientific circles and local societies.
The requirement to regularly study and monitor the springs is connected with
the alarming depletion of the resources of the hydrosphere and with their qualitative
degradation. On the other hand, it also results from the prevalence of a kind of
social permission for uncontrollable, illegal transformations of selected components
of the environment at the local or even regional scale. At the present stage of social
awareness, it is important to provide education in the field of the aquatic environment
and its links with other natural components. In children, such education should be
provided at every stage of their intellectual development, starting at an early age. In
adults, education must focus on fighting their prevailing habits, stereotypes in their
ways of thinking and behaviors, which may result from insufficient knowledge of the
environment and expose it to danger. Water has to be given back its “sacred” nature
and respect as a superior good, which plays a decisive role in the health and condition
of organisms and influences the physical and spiritual development of human beings.
133
Fig. 7.15 The destroyed enclosing of ´
Zródło Joanny (the Joan Spring) in L˛ adek Zdrój (Region XII;
cf. Fig. 7.7) – photo A. Bartnik
available method that is permitted by law should be used, and any instance of illegal
new projects to reconstruct or to encase springs should be restricted, whereas existing
facilities of this type should be inspected, those more valuable should be provided
with legal protection and some other ones – simply taken apart. There is a lot to
do for various formal or informal interdisciplinary social groups and organizations,
scientific circles and local societies.
The requirement to regularly study and monitor the springs is connected with
the alarming depletion of the resources of the hydrosphere and with their qualitative
degradation. On the other hand, it also results from the prevalence of a kind of
social permission for uncontrollable, illegal transformations of selected components
of the environment at the local or even regional scale. At the present stage of social
awareness, it is important to provide education in the field of the aquatic environment
and its links with other natural components. In children, such education should be
provided at every stage of their intellectual development, starting at an early age. In
adults, education must focus on fighting their prevailing habits, stereotypes in their
ways of thinking and behaviors, which may result from insufficient knowledge of the
environment and expose it to danger. Water has to be given back its “sacred” nature
and respect as a superior good, which plays a decisive role in the health and condition
of organisms and influences the physical and spiritual development of human beings.