Łódź, Wrocław and Upper Silesia removed from the List of Baltic Sea poisoners

Łódź has ceased to be one of the “hot points” of the Helcom list – key areas for the pollution of the Baltic Sea – the magistrate in Łódź informed. Wrocław and several cities of Upper Silesia were also removed from the list of “poisoners”.

The Łódź municipality announced that the city was removed from the list of poisoners of the Baltic Sea, i.e. it ceased to be the so -called Hot Spot in the cyclical report of Helcom, i.e. the Helsinki Commission (Baltic Environmental Environmental Protection Commission). Helcom hot points are key areas for the pollution of the Baltic Sea.

The City Hall of Łódź assessed in a statement that “this is a huge success of the city in the field of environmental protection and water and sewage management, which was the result of the city's many years of investments in modern sewage infrastructure and sewage treatment plants.”

Łódź is located on the border of the Odra and Vistula river basins. Bzura, who leads his waters from North Łódź, falls into the Vistula, and the other rivers belong to the Odra catchment catchment to which they flow and Warta.

“Even at the end of the 20th century, all factory and living sewage from Łódź went directly to the neru, and from there – through the Warta and Oder – straight to the Baltic Sea. Today the situation is completely different. Modernization of the sewage treatment plant, the expansion of the sewage network and sealing the sewage disposal system to the sewage treatment plant and the education of residents increased ecological awareness and brought results,” said Joanna Łucka from the city Łódź.

She added that the removal of the boat from the list of Baltic poisoners is proof of the effectiveness of actions taken by the city and a significant step in fulfilling the international obligations of Poland in the field of protection of the Baltic Sea.

According to the Łódź magistrate, the greatest role in improving the purity of water discharged to the Baltic from the Łódź agglomeration was played by a project to build a group sewage treatment plant of the Łódź urban agglomeration (Gośł), which receives sewage from Łódź, Pabianice, Konstantynów and from the municipalities of Ksawerów and Nowosolna. Since 2004, GOŚ has been systematically modernized, and new technologies allowed for further improvement of the quality of cleaned sewage discharged to the neru.

“Removing the boat from the Baltic Sea list is an impulse to continue investments and pro -ecological activities, because the consistent modernization of the infrastructure brings not only local effects, but also affecting the condition of the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem” – added Joanna Łucka.

The list of Baltic poisoners was founded in 1992. According to the information on the website of the Helsinki Commission, an international group of scientists, engineers, environmental management managers, bankers and representatives of the countries – members of the Helsinki Commission, set 132 primary critical points regarding the environment. Later, another one was added, which gave a total of 162 “hot spots”.

“The inflammatory points are sources of pollution, such as municipal facilities and industrial plants. The program also includes pollution from agricultural and rural housing areas as well as sensitive areas, such as coastal lagoons and wetlands, where special environmental protection measures are needed” – informs Helcom on its website.

From the first list of Helcom in 1992, the quality of water in many coastal waters of the Baltic Sea has improved significantly, which reflects the progress in the purification of municipal and industrial sewage.

The list is now on the list 35 active danger points, of which 6 in Poland. Four of them include industrial threats and are associated with the activities of industrial plants in Jaworzno, Czechowice-Dziedzice, Dąbrowa Górnicza and Krakow.

The points that have been removed from the Helcom list are so -called municipal inflammatory points. On a special map on the Helcom website as deleted in 2025. In addition to Łódź, they are also figured Wrocław and Katowice with Mysłowice, Siemianowice and Bytom.

According to the provisions on the organization's website, the Baltic Environmental Environmental Protection Commission, also known as the Helsinki Commission, is an intergovernmental institution in the Baltic Sea area. It was created in 1974 in order to protect the Baltic Sea's sea environment against all sources of pollution, and the signatories of the Helsinki Convention are Denmark, Estonia, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. (PAP)

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