Residents of Kraszewskiego Street complain that for many years they have had to endure the stench from the nearby wastewater-treatment plant. It smells worst late in the evening, around 10:00 and 11:00 p.m. “It is hard to endure and breathe this stench, let alone sleep,” says one resident of a house located 300 meters from the plant. “You cannot sit normally in front of your house, and you cannot barbecue. We are breathing human waste,” adds the desperate woman. The smell is most troublesome in summer, when there are many hot days. Residents of Kraszewskiego Street do not believe the situation can change.
Rats run through gardens and along the street
The stench is not the only problem for residents living near the wastewater-treatment plant. Rats are a plague in home gardens. The rodents dig tunnels in the soil, which gradually collapses as a result. Adding fresh soil or even sand does not help. After some time, everything returns to its previous state. Residents tried to poison the troublesome rodents themselves, but this did not produce the expected result. The rats still run through the gardens and along the street, digging holes. “Stench and rats” is how the residents of Kraszewskiego Street briefly describe their problem. According to the residents, the problem has already been reported to the city authorities many times.
Does the smell come not only from the wastewater-treatment plant?
Employees of the nearby wastewater-treatment plant believe that the sewer system, rather than the plant itself, is largely the source of the stench. An unpleasant smell can also be detected in other parts of the city, especially near sewer manholes. The Water and Sewerage Company is looking for a way to reduce the problem. “Our company is currently testing so-called odor-deodorizing devices. This is a new idea. We are currently testing proposals from three companies that offer hope of definitively solving the problem,” says Ireneusz Maszko, president of PWiK. The company is to select an offer by the end of the year. There is therefore hope that the troublesome odors will disappear. According to the city authorities, the problem affecting residents of Kraszewskiego Street should disappear in 2009. The modernization of the wastewater-treatment plant is expected to be completed then. “I think that by that time the engineers will have already dealt with this problem,” says Agnieszka Gergont, a spokesperson for the city office. “One of the tasks involved in modernizing and expanding the wastewater-treatment plant is hermetic sealing. This means that all open facilities from which the stench escapes are to be enclosed. The city office asked PWiK to assess the scale of the rat problem,” the spokesperson adds. If what the residents say is confirmed, PWiK will handle deratization (rat control).
(MZ report)