Transformation of the Lower Silesian Coal Basin - a failed experiment

Abstract

The old 19th century industrial districts and basins played an essential role in shaping the growth processes in individual national economies of European countries as early as the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. The formation of the foundations of the new economy, in which knowledge begins to play the fundamental role, and the innovation closely related to it, at a fairly rapid pace, causes these areas to lose their importance. A large population with a predominance of traditional education, outdated and often worn-out infrastructure are the sources of their socio-economic problems. This situation also applied to the Lower Silesian Coal Basin, which operated in the vicinity of Wałbrzych and Nowa Ruda. The basin was characterised not only by obsolete and decapitalised components of fixed assets but also to its disadvantage was the peripheral location and an underdeveloped production and technological chain. In addition, the lack of an effective connection with the country (which, unfortunately, still applies today) and the borderland, as well as the location in a mountainous area, negatively affected the economic efficiency of this area. Even in the 1980s, a failed attempt was made to save the hard coal mining sector by merging the mines and the costly construction of the Copernicus collecting shaft. Along with the political and systemic transformation, a decision was automatically made to close the basin, and this process was euphemistically called restructuring. But in practice, it was reduced to the closure of mines and most of the coking plants (one is still operating today), which resulted in the collapse of many companies that operated for the mining industry. In mid-1998, coal mining was stopped, and in the following year, the mines located in the Lower Silesia Coal Basin were finally closed. It was the first closure of such a large area of economic activity in the realities of Polish economy. The activities that were undertaken during the closure of the basin were characterised by low effectiveness, fragmentation, and high variability of activities (even chaotic). After the closure, the area was left to fend for itself with overwhelming problems across all socio-economic dimensions. Currently, after more than thirty years, when characterising the effects of these activities, they should be clearly assessed as even tragic, in terms of society (enormous unemployment, pauperisation, community regression – this is where old coal pits were created on a massive scale), environment (secondary emission and spontaneous combustion of heaps, rising water levels or the penetration of gases from workings into basements of buildings) and economy (low entrepreneurship rate, an outflow of people to other cities, low level of productivity of the subregion, etc.). In recent years, positive phenomena have been observed in the region. However, both the pace and the scale are small, and, more importantly, their location is punctual and primarily concerns Wałbrzych. They are endogenous in nature, which indicates that with external help, it is possible to reverse negative trends. The aim of this paper is to assess the transformations that took place in the Wałbrzych subregion and were triggered by the liquidation of the Lower Silesian Coal Basin.