On Tuesday, June 5, a press conference was held at the headquarters of the Water and Sewerage Company, attended, among others, by Bolesławiec mayor Piotr Roman and PWiK president Józef Król. During the meeting, there was no shortage of questions about the storm that hit the City of Ceramics on May 10. (Some residents had complaints about the municipal company; comments of this kind also appeared on our forum.)
The matter was explained by Grzegorz Kozłowski, technical director at PWiK. “The Water and Sewerage Company is responsible for supplying water and collecting wastewater; maintaining roads, especially their drainage, is not within its remit,” he stressed. “Nevertheless, it is very fortunate that we have agreements with both the City and the County for cleaning and unclogging drains. And we feel responsible. We took an active part in removing the storm’s effects.”
The director recalled that a comprehensive modernization of the entire sewer system was carried out in Bolesławiec between 2005 and 2009. At that time, the Bolesławiec system became compliant with EU standards, meaning that it can handle a design rainfall of 30 mm within an hour.
On that disastrous day, at around 12:45 p.m., PWiK employees received a weather warning of rainfall measuring 15–20 mm, locally possibly up to 30 mm. Meanwhile, Bolesławiec was hit by an anomaly: 86 mm of rain, three times as much. It was a record-breaking storm. “For our part, we did everything we could to reopen county and municipal roads,” G. Kozłowski stressed.
“The weather bulletin did not indicate how dramatic the situation was,” said Mayor P. Roman. “The sewer systems were not designed for such anomalies. We had 86 mm of rain in one hour. Let us remember that in Bogatynia, when there was flooding, 45 mm fell. We must realize how great an anomaly we were dealing with.”
The mayor stressed that most storm drains had been cleaned, but mowing the grass further compounded the situation. “Let us be glad that we managed to restore the retention basin. Thanks to this, the Młynówka was much calmer,” he noted.
He immediately added that the City and the County had already taken action to solve the problem. The County Office dealt with the Młynówka, while City Hall addressed Zgorzelecka Street.
We will certainly return to this subject.
