Quality control of rivers in Poland is carried out on three levels – national, regional and local.
On the national level research is conducted according to the following two systems:
– a benchmark monitoring system, which consists of 20 control survey cross-sections, including basin areas of economical significance which are located above the mouths of the main Polish river flowing into the Baltic Sea (12 cross-sections)
– a basic monitoring system, which allows the following: control and gathering of information on the quality and amount of river waters, comparison of river quality over a number of years, as well as an analysis comparing the level of water pollution in Poland with the rest of Europe.

In 1995, the quality of river waters was determined on the basis of monitoring system measurements conducted for 321 control survey cross-sections of 20 rivers, totalling in length over 6.7 thousand km. Due to the reliable assessment of obligatory parameters (concentration of liquid O₂, BZT₅ ^*, ChZT-Mn ^**, phenol content, chlorides, sulphates, soluble substances and suspended matter), which are the basis for comparison of water quality changes over many years, it was determined that 22.4% of the tested lengths of the rivers were found to be class I type waters, and only 12.6% were considered non-classifiable (MAP illustrating river quality in Poland).

The quality of running waters, based on the full list of physio-chemical and biological characteristics is much less promising. It appears that according to these characteristics, even though the amount of industrial sewage dumped into the rivers has decreased from 1990–1995, the rivers remain quite polluted and their level of quality remains unsatisfactory and not different than in 1985 (Table – with information on river quality changes as monitored by tests).

In Poland, river water quality is adversely affected by the large concentration of industry and main sources of pollution which are located in the upper regions of river basins, and thus impact the river throughout its entire course.

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