Chapter 8
Groundwater Resources of Poland
Arkadiusz Krawiec and Andrzej Sadurski
Abstract More than 70 percent of water supply in Poland is cover at present from
the groundwater resources. Total exploitation of the groundwater intakes reaching
1,5 km
3 a year in the country and still growing up due to good and stable quality of
water, as well stable amount of exploitation resources and also low cost of purification technology in contradiction to surface water from the rivers. The most abundant
in water are porous Quaternary aquifers in the northern and central parts of Poland,
that means along the lake lands and Polish - German lowland. In the southern part,
along the Sudetes and Carpathians and Holly Cross Mts., and their forelands dominate the fissure aquifers, with low groundwater capacity. Droughts and scarcity of
water resources overlapping this belt comprises central lowlands from Belarus to
Brandenburg in Germany. This situation occur during the years of low precipitations
(e.g. two month without rainfall) in summer. In the beginning of XXI century great
influence of water management in Poland had implementation of Water Framework
Directive to the polish low system. New approach to the groundwater resources was
defined and ecological aspects of water demand in the management plans for river
basins were established. Available groundwater resources of the river basins means
that significant volume of water for flora and fauna has to remain in the area. Total
groundwater resources of the country is 36.4 million m3 a day, including almost
15 million m
3 /day of estimated prospective resources. Mineral and thermal waters
have been used in Poland for therapeutic purposes since the early Middle Ages.
Dominate mineral waters of the Polish Lowlands is Cl-Na type, whereas in waters
of the HCO 3 -Na-Mg or HCO 3 -Mg-Na types also over saturated with CO 2 occur in
the Sudetes and Carpathians. Unique mineralized, of oversaturated with CO2, water
name Zuber, occur in the Carpathian Province. The highest concentrations of radon
in healing waters have been identified in the Sudetes Province (e.g. ´
Swieradów Spa
and L˛ adek Spa). Different types of mineral and thermal waters are exploited in more
than 40 of Spas for therapeutic purposes. Thermal waters are exploited for recreation
and heating purposes in twenty places and health resorts.
A. Krawiec (B) · A. Sadurski
Department of Geology and Hydrogeology, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management,
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toru´ n, Poland
e-mail: arkadiusz.krawiec@umk.pl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Zeleˇ náková et al. (eds.), Management of Water Resources in Poland, Springer Water,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61965-7_8
141
Groundwater Resources of Poland
Arkadiusz Krawiec and Andrzej Sadurski
Abstract More than 70 percent of water supply in Poland is cover at present from
the groundwater resources. Total exploitation of the groundwater intakes reaching
1,5 km
3 a year in the country and still growing up due to good and stable quality of
water, as well stable amount of exploitation resources and also low cost of purification technology in contradiction to surface water from the rivers. The most abundant
in water are porous Quaternary aquifers in the northern and central parts of Poland,
that means along the lake lands and Polish - German lowland. In the southern part,
along the Sudetes and Carpathians and Holly Cross Mts., and their forelands dominate the fissure aquifers, with low groundwater capacity. Droughts and scarcity of
water resources overlapping this belt comprises central lowlands from Belarus to
Brandenburg in Germany. This situation occur during the years of low precipitations
(e.g. two month without rainfall) in summer. In the beginning of XXI century great
influence of water management in Poland had implementation of Water Framework
Directive to the polish low system. New approach to the groundwater resources was
defined and ecological aspects of water demand in the management plans for river
basins were established. Available groundwater resources of the river basins means
that significant volume of water for flora and fauna has to remain in the area. Total
groundwater resources of the country is 36.4 million m3 a day, including almost
15 million m
3 /day of estimated prospective resources. Mineral and thermal waters
have been used in Poland for therapeutic purposes since the early Middle Ages.
Dominate mineral waters of the Polish Lowlands is Cl-Na type, whereas in waters
of the HCO 3 -Na-Mg or HCO 3 -Mg-Na types also over saturated with CO 2 occur in
the Sudetes and Carpathians. Unique mineralized, of oversaturated with CO2, water
name Zuber, occur in the Carpathian Province. The highest concentrations of radon
in healing waters have been identified in the Sudetes Province (e.g. ´
Swieradów Spa
and L˛ adek Spa). Different types of mineral and thermal waters are exploited in more
than 40 of Spas for therapeutic purposes. Thermal waters are exploited for recreation
and heating purposes in twenty places and health resorts.
A. Krawiec (B) · A. Sadurski
Department of Geology and Hydrogeology, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management,
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toru´ n, Poland
e-mail: arkadiusz.krawiec@umk.pl
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Zeleˇ náková et al. (eds.), Management of Water Resources in Poland, Springer Water,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61965-7_8
141