Municipalities lack funds for sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants. The money will go towards shelters.

• - There is absolutely no funding for sewage treatment plants for municipalities with between 2,000 and 10,000 inhabitants - says Tomasz Kucharski, mayor of the City and Commune of Olsztyn.
• Due to the reallocation of some funds from the Green Urban Transformation Program to shelters, cities awaiting financial support may not receive funding. Therefore, the mayor of Olsztyn has requested the Ministry of Finance to increase the pool of loans under the Green Urban Transformation Program.
• The Ministry of Climate assures that in the second half of 2025, the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management will launch a loan program to cover the costs of local sewage treatment plants, sanitary sewers, and the construction of building connections to such networks.

Municipalities with fewer than 20,000 residents cannot count on any funding for the construction or modernization of wastewater treatment plants and sewer systems . One of the local governments seeking financial support for wastewater treatment plant modernization is the City and Commune of Olsztyn.

Tomasz Kucharski, mayor of the City and Commune of Olsztyn, explains that the sewage treatment plant is at the end of its lifespan, and the lack of investment is tantamount to an ecological disaster.

"Municipalities like ours, with a population between 2,000 and 10,000, don't receive any preferential funding for water and sewage management, specifically for sewage treatment plants . As a small town, we were counting on funding from the National Reconstruction Plan. As part of these grants, we were even offered very attractive loans, including for water and sewage management. The project was called Green Urban Transformation. I was overjoyed at the time. It wasn't a grant, but a 20-year loan with no or 1% interest," says Tomasz Kucharski.

"However, when we submitted an application in mid-April 2025 for funding to expand and modernize the treatment plant, doubts arose as to whether we would receive the funding. As it turns out, a significant portion of these funds were allocated to investments related to the construction of shelters, hiding places, and access roads . We are very concerned about this, as it turns out there is absolutely no funding for wastewater treatment plants for municipalities with populations between 2,000 and 10,000. We cannot turn to commercial loans because we cannot incur such high debts to the municipality. Building a treatment plant costs between 20 and 30 million złoty," he adds.

The mayor sent numerous letters requesting that the municipality be granted funding to: the National Fund for Environmental Protection, the Association of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland, the Minister of Finance, the National Economy Bank, which distributes funds from the Green Transformation of Cities, and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.

" The sewage treatment plant is essential infrastructure for the lives of residents . Its expansion and renovation will allow for further sewer connections for our residents, however, without external funding we will not be able to complete this investment, which is why we are facing an ecological disaster. Therefore, we are asking for an increase in the pool of loans under the Green Transformation of Cities," Mayor Tomasz Kucharski wrote on July 23 to the Minister of Finance and Economy, Andrzej Domański.

The mayor’s requests were accepted by the Union of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland, which adopted a position on the need to establish a dedicated Government Municipal Fund, which would allow for co-financing the modernization, expansion or construction of new sewage treatment plants in rural and urban-rural municipalities.

Currently, there is no funding for the construction, expansion, or construction of sewage treatment plants, and all rural municipalities face the problem of a lack of funding for sewage systems. For this reason, the Association of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland has adopted a position on the need to establish a Government Municipal Fund, which would allow for the co-financing of the modernization, expansion, or construction of new sewage treatment plants in rural and urban-rural municipalities. Our analyses indicate that approximately PLN 80 billion is needed for sewage systems. I would like to emphasize that approximately 60% of rural areas are currently not connected to a sewage system. We face significant challenges in meeting EU requirements for sewage treatment and drinking water quality.

- explains Mariusz Marszał, deputy director of the Office for Legislative Affairs of the Union of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland.

As he emphasizes, the Association has asked the Ministry of Agriculture to identify possible funding opportunities for sewage systems, but the ministry listed programs that have largely expired; the remaining programs, however, concern funding for the construction of connections and domestic sewage treatment plants, not municipal sewage treatment plants and sewage systems . The Deputy Director emphasizes that for domestic sewage treatment plants and connections to function properly, they must be serviced by municipal sewage treatment plants that are adapted to this purpose. Modernization is essential for this.

In response to a letter from the Association of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland, the Ministry of Agriculture indicated outdated forms of funding, but the Ministry of Climate and Environment provided better information: the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management plans to launch a Priority Program entitled "Water and Sewage Management Outside Agglomerations." It intends to allocate PLN 100 million in loans to local governments to improve water and sewage management outside agglomerations.

The loans would be granted for a period of 15 years, covering up to the entire investment value. The borrowed funds could be used to cover the costs of local municipal wastewater treatment plants, sanitary sewers, the construction of building connections to the sanitary sewer system, the construction, expansion, or modernization of collection stations, the purchase of vehicles for transporting liquid waste to collection stations, and the creation of digital systems for reporting and recording domestic wastewater treatment plants and septic tanks .

The loan application process is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2025, and the application process is planned to continue continuously until the end of 2029.

This money is not physically there yet, so we, as the local government, are cautious about these promises.

- emphasizes Mariusz Marszał.

The Ministry of Infrastructure, in response to the Union's letter, reminds that matters including water supply, sewage, removal and treatment of municipal sewage, as well as collective water supply and collective sewage disposal are the commune's own tasks .

The Ministry emphasizes that it is the municipal council, through a resolution constituting an act of local law, that designates agglomerations, and every two years the commune head, mayor, or city president reviews the areas and boundaries of agglomerations. For these reasons , the Ministry believes that local government authorities have the necessary legal and planning tools to properly manage wastewater within their areas, including agglomerations .

The Deputy Director of the Office for Legislative Affairs of the Water Management Board of the Republic of Poland argues that although collective sewage disposal is indeed the municipality's own responsibility, just like education, it is not local governments that decide on these processes, therefore the responsibility and financial security in this matter do not lie solely with the municipality .