A Tale of Two Cities: Public participation and sustainability in decision-making on water systems in two Polish cities

Like all transition countries in Eastern Europe, Poland after 1990 faced the problem of how to deal with a legacy of poor or non-existent water and wastewater systems, which required large-scale investment to meet environmental and consumer concerns. It faced this problem, along with rising public pressure and, later, the external factor of European Union standards, whilst undergoing a radical economic and political transformation. This paper looks at two Polish cities, Gdańsk and Łódź, and compares and contrasts their experiences in meeting these challenges, drawing on reports carried out for the European Union-funded WaterTime project.