New project to treat Poland’s waste water; Finnish foundation helps develop removal of phosphorus

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Cleaner waste water will flow from Warsaw and other Polish cities into the Baltic Sea, if a project initiated by the Finnish John Nurminen Foundation achieves its goals. The aim of the foundation is to persuade Polish cities to reduce emissions of phosphorus by 1,000 tons a year.
      Phosphorus feeds toxic blue-green algae, which has become an annual summertime problem in Finland in recent years.
      Together with the Swedish Baltic Sea 2000 Foundation, the John Nurminen Foundation plans to help Polish cities in the chemical treatment fo their sewage.
      Poland has already developed its water purification systems to a considerable degree. With the help of the new system, waste water is to be treated so thoroughly that there will be only a milligram of phosphorus in a litre of water.
     
However, the two foundations have even more ambitious aims. With the help of chemical treatment, the amount of phosphorus in the water can be cut in half, to half a milligramme per litre.
      "The purpose is to fine-tune the process so that we can get more out of it”, said the head of the project, Martti Lariola of the John Nurminen Foundation.
      The project in Poland does not involve the construction of any new treatment plants. The costs are estimated at about EUR 10 million.
     
Poland has plans to invest much more. In 2005-2015 Poland is to spend nearly EUR 12 billion.
      Lariola says that the additional costs of the chemical treatment of Warsaw’s waters are only about EUR 400,000 a year.
      The John Nurminen Foundation will get the chemicals required for phosphorus removal for the first years on the condition that the city itself promises to continue the more efficient treatment.
      “We are in effect buying phosphorus from these cities”, Lariola explains.
     
The five-year project begins in Warsaw this summer. After that, between 70 and 90 large and medium-sized Polish cities are to join the project. Their waste water output comprises about 90% of all of Poland’s waste water.
      The primary aim is the removal of phosphorus, which along with nitrogen, promotes algae growth. Phosphorus enters waterways as part of agricultural runoff, and through human waste.
      Poland’s waste waters have a serious impact on the state of the Baltic Sea, as nearly half of the residents of the catchment area of the Baltic Sea live in Poland. Most of the phosphorus that ends up in the Baltic Sea comes from Poland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Baltic Sea needs urgent attention (14.4.2008)
  St. Petersburg reduces phosphorus emissions into Gulf of Finland (2.10.2007)

Links:
  John Nurminen Foundation: Clean Baltic Sea

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