„Pieśń bez słów”. Starania władz Wilna o budowę kanalizacji w latach 1903–1928
“A song without words”. Efforts by the Vilnius authorities to build a sewage system between 1903 and 1928

Summary/Abstract: In the nineteenth century, Vilnius experienced intensive demographic and spatial development. Between 1796 and 1909, its population increased by more than 1,100 per cent, while the administrative area expanded about 4–5 times. Unfortunately, in spite of urbanisation, the city lagged behind in terms of sanitation. It was not until 1903 that a decision was taken to build a sewage system and waterworks. The plans were prepared by Edward Szymański and Oskar Smreker. Due to a lack of funds for the project, they were repeatedly revised. The final revisions were made in 1908 by Gabriel Kasper Sokołowski and Edward Szenfeld. In 1912, the mayor of Vilnius, Michał Węsławski, obtained a loan from a London bank for the implementation of the project in the amount of £449,160, or Rb 4,244,562, with the payment spread over 62 years. Work on the sewage system started later that year, but was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. By then, only 27 km of the network had been constructed and 420 houses had been connected to the system. Construction works did not resume until 1924. By then, some of the funds borrowed abroad had “disappeared” into Russian banks. By 1928, out of 130 km of the planned network, only 43 km had been completed and 896 properties had been connected. The protracted works, their poor planning and the difficulties they caused, became the subject of widespread public criticism, which was expressed in a special issue of the daily newspaper Kurjer Krajowy in 1913.

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