The meeting in Kalisz on 11 March closed the public consultations concerning the draft of the updated flood risk management plan (uFRMP) for the water region of the Warta in the Oder watershed. The planned Wielowieś Klasztorna reservoir will be of particular importance for the flood safety of Kalisz. That was the seventh of 28 meetings. The uFRMP consultations were already held in Gorzów Wielkopolski and Poznań.
The water region of the Warta is an example of synergy of the draft uFRMP and the plan of combating drought effects (PPSS) in the form of numerous activities, including e.g. retention-related ones, aimed mostly at retaining water where it falls to use those resources reasonably in dry periods. An example of such activities is e.g. the multi-purpose Wielowieś Klasztorna reservoir. This reservoir, filled with water all the time, is to have the area of 1,704 ha and to store close to 50 million m3 of water. It is to be erected in the poviat districts of Kalisz, Ostrów and Ostrzeszów, and the communes of Sieroszewice, Godziesze Wielkie, Brzeziny, Kraszewice and Grabów nad Prosną. “The reservoir will ensure flood protection to Kalisz and the neighbouring areas and will protect residents from the effects of drought and water deficit on the increasing area of the Greater Poland. This large reservoir will provide sufficient good quality water for the functioning of the inhabitants, the environment and the economy in this region. The cost of this project is more than PLN 1 billion”, said Bogumił Nowak, director of Regionalny Zarząd Gospodarki Wodnej in Poznań.
Planned activities
Construction of Wielowieś Klasztorna reservoir on the Prosna river is the most important activity designed in uFRMP. The second most important one is the improved flood protection in the valley of the Warta river thanks to the construction of Golina polder in the poviat district of Konin (the cost of more than PLN 406 million). The planned activities include the ones connected with the warning systems, e.g. construction and improvement of the local flood alert systems and the development of the monitoring system, early warning and programming of flood hazards. They include also tasks connected with the modernisation of the hydro-engineering facilities in Jeziorsko reservoir. This storage reservoir, situated at the junction of the Greater Poland and Łódź voivodeship (the area of more than 42 km2 and the volume of more than 200 million m3), is close to 40 years old and requires modernisation and repairs. uFRMP provides for numerous modernisations of the reservoir hydro-engineering structures, including the weir. The last group of continued tasks include modernisations of the flood embankments, including the left-bank embankment of the Warta in the commune of Pyzdry, the right-bank embankment of the Prosna in the commune of Pyzdry, the left-bank flood embankment on Rumin polder in the commune of Stare Miasto and the left-bank flood embankment of the Warta in the village of Rumin. Within the tasks implemented by Wody Polskie, Regionalny Zarząd Gospodarki Wodnej in Poznań, the plan provides for the alteration, vertical enlargement and expansion of the flood embankments of the Kucelinka canal in Częstochowa.
FRMP updated every 6 years
The flood risk management plans are developed for 6 years. At present, they are updated for the first time. They include the most important activities concerning the safety of residents of the threatened areas. The public consultations concerning the drafts of the updated FRMP, announced by the Minister of Infrastructure and coordinated by Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne Wody Polskie, started on 22 December 2020 and will last until 22 June this year. The earliest comments and requests have already been submitted. Consultation meetings take place simultaneously. They will be held in as many as 28 towns and cities in Poland. The debates held in February and the ones in March and April have taken and will take place on-line. This may change when the pandemics-related restrictions are alleviated or removed. Then, the meetings will be held in the traditional form. Registration for a specific meeting starts three weeks before the appointed date. Any required information and drafts of the updated FRMP are published on an ongoing basis on www.stoppowodzi.pl