Wrocław is the chief city of Lower Silesia situated in the southwest part of Poland. It is one of the oldest and most beautiful towns in Poland.

5 large rivers flow through Wrocław: the Odra River and its 4 tributaries. There are 12 islands and 112 bridges in Wrocław.

There are few forests at the area of Wrocław. The biggest area is covered by national forests – 1300 ha. Parks are the hallmarks of Wrocław’s urban greenery. There are 45 parks in the city.

Commercial power sector, is the primary source of air pollution in Wrocław. The largest pollutant emissions are seen for:  dust (7878 Mg/year)  sulphur dioxide (4118 Mg/year)  nitrogen oxides (2456 Mg/year)  carbon oxides ( Mg/year)

Electomagnetic field can influence all organisms. Effects depend on intencity of the field. The most popular artificial sources of electromagnetic fields in the environment include: broadcasting antennas  –broadcasting antennas of cellular telephony base stations base stations antennas  –base stations antennas of different systems for land mobile radiocommunications overhead lines  –overhead lines

There are many sources of pollution in The Odra River area. Mainly matallurgy and heavy industry. There are about 1700 potential sources of pollution and about 700 significantly influence the condition of The Odra River and it’s tributaries.

 Petrochemicals  Petroleum refining  Steel works foundries

Surface water quality monitoring observations indicate a clear improvement in water quality in the water courses situated in Wrocław. This is due to the collapse of industry responsible for water contamination and due to reduction in the amount of sewage discharged from the sources of pollution that still exist. This is also stems from substantial investment efforts made to modernise the existing wastewater treatment plants and to erect new ones.

The results of observations show that water quality in the water courses in Wrocław has significantly improved over the last decade or so. Surface water in rivers in the city falls into the 3rd quality class (satisfactory), and in some cases into the 2nd class (good quality).

Floods are very dangerous for the environment. The biggest flood in the history of the city took place in July 1997.

The results of the analyses made by the Wrocław Regional Chemical and Agricultural Station shows that the content of phosphorus, potassium and magnesium soils with very low content of the above macroelements represent beetwen 20% and 40% of all arable land. The content od heavy metals has decreased in last 5 years.

Waste is one of the biggest environmental problems in Wrocław. It is coused by the very high waste production level and low recycling level.

Waste typeAmount of sewage Bio-waste69,98271,18073,159 2.paper62,18363,24865,006 3.plastic42,67843,40944,616 4.glass24,11824,53125,213 5.metal13,89314,13114,524 6.fabric wood Dangerous waste

 Recycling : paper, plastic and glass Placing recycling bins at school „How to turn rubbish into something useful ?” –school competition  Saving water  Saving electricity  Walking to school  Cleaning the local environment (collecting and recycling rubbish)