Kinga Krauze and Katarzyna Izydorczyk (ERCE PAN)

Poland is one of the countries with very limited water resources. Renewable fresh water resources per capita amount to 1600 m³ (annual averages from many years, GUS 2016), while already the level of 1700 m³ per capita is considered as a critical one. It causes prolonged water stress, i.e. exceeding the level of water safety.

Analyses indicated also that 37.80% of agricultural and forest areas are endangered by extreme and strong agricultural drought which, together with areas endangered to a moderate degree (7.72%), qualifies as much as 45.52% of agricultural and forest areas as significantly endangered by agricultural drought (PPSS 2020).

Counteracting the effects of drought, both in Poland and in Europe, is becoming a growing challenge. This is reflected in numerous legal regulations, e.g. in the field of water resources management, agricultural management, spatial planning and crisis management.

Drought causes impacts in the form of restrictions on water use, access to water services, or agricultural or forestry production opportunities. The occurrence of drought affects directly and indirectly areas such as environment, economy and society. Consequently, it is also part of such fields as water management and economics. The scale of the problem of drought effects is evidenced, inter alia, by the fact of compensations paid and the level of drought risk disaster aid for farmers, which amounted to: about 0.5 billion PLN in 2015, and 2.07 billion PLN in 2018. In 2019 ca 355 thousand applications for compensation for losses worth over 2.3 billion PLN were implemented.

The solution to the challenge includes technical interventions as well as require de-fragmentation of water management system, better assignment of competences, anchoring of local and regional strategies into data and forecasts and setting efficient communication, information, and educational systems linking water managers of all levels from the country one – Wody Polskie to the local partnerships – water companies [in Polish: spółki wodne].