The two basic uses of water resources in Poland, which most strongly affect the quality and quantity of water, are the use of water for economic purposes and the use of rivers, streams and lakes as sewage receptors for different branches of the economy. In the last several decades, water intake has been systematically increasing, measuring over 15 km³ annually at the end of the 1970’s. As a result of the economic recession of the 1980’s, this figure levelled off, and eventually decreased in the beginning of the 1990’s (Table – with information on the national economic intake of water in km³/year).

Industry consumes the largest amount of water, using over two-thirds of the total yearly water intake. The municipal sector consumes about three times less water than industry, and agriculture and forestry use even six times less than industry (Table). Of all the industrial branches, the power generating plants have the greatest demand for water. In 1995, the power generating plants needed 83% of all available industrial water, which was about 58% of the total available industrial water.

Over 83% of the water used for the national economy comes from surface waters, 14% comes from underground sources, and only approximately 2% comes from water discharge in mines. Over one-fourth of the highest quality underground water is used for production purposes in industry. Water from mines meets requirements for drinking water, however it is not used properly. Only about 40% of the 0.8 km³ of the recovered mine water is utilised annually.

The fishing industry utilises surface waters. Fish occur naturally in 85% of reservoirs and water courses. Planned production and fishing take place in about 60% of the total area of the reservoirs and water courses.

Another possible use of surface water is for shipping, goods and passengers alike. The goods transported by inland waters in Poland account for only 0.8% of the total transported goods in the country. Passengers travelling by water account for only 0.2% of the total number of passengers using state transportation.

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