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control systems, build new water purification and sewerage treatment plants, expand and modernize existing facilities, and hook up additional urban housing to existing networks of these and other public utilities.
In the urban areas the availability of modern utilities, such as running hot and cold water, central heating, and laundry facilities, is increasing. Nevertheless, the mass housing projects of the immediate postwar period accorded relatively low priority to modern plumbing and the distribution of other utilities. For this reason, the average urban multiple-unit housing project in the smaller towns still lacks many of the utilities considered essential by Western standards. In 1970 the following percentages of urban housing were equipped with the utilities listed:
| Central water system | 80.3 |
| Sewerage system | 76.2 |
| Electricity | 100.0 |
| Gas | 36.8 |
| Central heating (by steam from central plant) | 35.1 |
Some housing units, particularly older housing, are not connected to these utilities even in urban areas where all of them were centrally available. The smaller cities and towns, mainly under 50,000 in population, where lack of central utilities is more prevalent, are the main factors in depressing the average figures in the above tabulation. In 1970 only three of the 31 cities with a population over 50,000 lacked any one of the utilities listed; in these three, a fully developed gas network did not exist.
The electrification of urban areas was officially declared completed by 1965. The most marked progress, however, was made in rural electrification, which was of negligible proportions in the prewar period and had extended to almost 90% of all rural communities by 1970.
The issue of environmental protection has been slow to arise in Poland; economic development, rather than safeguards against its environmental effects, apparently remains the chief concern of the country's leaders. In some regions, such as in the heavily industrialized province of Katowice, the old textile center of Lodz, and even in the Warsaw area, air pollution—primarily of airborne ash and coal soot—chronically remains at alarming levels. This is compounded by the widespread use of high-sulphur-content coals. Better grades of coal continue to be reserved for export. The situation with respect to surface waters is even worse. In 1972 the government revealed that only 25% of all such waters meet municipal requirements, and 30% of the total river length was below "admissible pollution standards."
Nevertheless, proliferating central and local government study groups have paid increasing attention to water and air pollution within the framework of the Gierek regime's effort to improve the quality of life, and Poland probably leads the East European countries in discussion of environmental controls. The revised 1971-75 economic plan includes ambitious goals to developing new industrial technologies to curb air and water pollution, and calls for such systems to be included in the planning of new industrial enterprises. Western observers, however, are pessimistic with regard to the implementation of any really ameliorative measures in the near future.
3. Nutrition (U/OU)
After years of deprivation and want among the citizenry, the economy had recovered sufficiently by 1955 to provide a daily intake of between 3,100 and 3,200 calories. Nevertheless, some nutritional deficiencies continue to exist, due largely to a disproportionate amount of starches and fats in the diet. This nutritional imbalance is largely the result of periodic shortages and high prices of such protein- and mineral-rich foods as meat, milk, fruits, and vegetables, but it is also the result of ingrained dietary habits, especially among the peasantry. Despite these factors the Polish diet compares favorable in most respects with those obtaining in other East European countries, especially in the relative intake of milk and dairy products, although it lags in most respects behind the best-fed countries of Western Europe and the United States (Figure 28).
Polish dietary attitudes differ from those elsewhere in Eastern Europe primarily in the consideration of meat as a staple. Despite government efforts to popularize greater dietary variety, especially of fish and other protein foods, the average Pole is still predisposed to use the relative availability of high-quality pork and veal as a basis for judging the overall level of his diet. For this reason, government data citing rising consumption of meat, which is said to have increased by nearly 50% between 1950 and 1970, have been used to bolster claims of improved living conditions. Nevertheless, maldistribution and spoilage not only of meat but of other food supplies aggravate periodic natural shortages and diminish in the popular mind whatever real increases in per capita consumption are made on a yearly basis. Indeed, one of the key economic factors underlying the December
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