Polish Antarctic Station turns 40
Located more than 14,000 kilometers away from Poland, the Polish Antarctic Station is among 40 research bases operating year-round in Antarctica, with Polish scientists having been working there uninterruptedly for 40 years.
The Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island in the South Shetlands has a fossil fuel power station providing heating and hot water to the scientists living there. Today, they had the Internet but earlier they used satellite phones generating enormous phone bills. Anna Kidawa, a member of several Antarctic expeditions, noted that she felt "very separated from the world" when she lived there in the 1980s.
The scientists at the station established in 1977 continue to share their meals but carry out independent research work, with natural environment being their greatest concern. "That is why we pay such great attention to proper waste management", Dariusz Puczko, the logistics coordinator admitted. "Organic waste is burned in a special incinerator. Renewable waste is sorted, compressed and shipped back to Poland", he added.
The station has an annual budget of PLN 6 million, PLN 4 million short of what it needs to maintain the infrastructure in proper condition, in view of the harsh weather conditions and high salinity of the Antarctic atmosphere. The budget also covers the costs of chartering transport vessels as well as logistics, payroll, food and fuel. Robert Bialik, the head of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) Antarctica Biology Department, believes that the current PLN 6 million budget is "wholly insufficient". Part of the station's infrastructure was renewed in 1998.
PAN, which runs the station, has asked the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for additional funding - approximately PLN 90 million. According to that estimate, the costs of transporting the building materials for the redesigned research station, with its new laboratories and living quarters, would consume half of that sum.
As one of the signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, Poland is one of the 29 consultative parties able to take decisions concerning human activities in the Antarctic. "The presence of scientists in the region is just one of the elements in the power play in this part of the world that has no proprietor," Bialik observed. Although the presence of Polish researchers is not questioned, "the future of their research work depends on the financing and maintenance of proper infrastructure", he stressed.
The signatories of the Treaty agreed to use the Antarctic for peaceful, non-military purposes. According to the Protocol on Environment Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, the Antarctic region is regarded (as of 1998) as a gigantic natural habitat.(PAP)
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