In rural areas approximately 26% of water from public and industrial water supply systems is of poor or unproven quality, particularly with the respect to its bacteriological contamination. Nationwide, only 38% of farm wells provides water of satisfactory quality. Inspections conducted by the sanitary and epidemiological authorities revealed that in some rural areas 95% of intakes yield is of poor quality. Thus, several million people in Poland drink water unsuitable for consumption. The reasons are manifold; some causes are discussed by the authors. The first major step to alleviate this predicament is to realize that in many cases it results from poor sanitary conditions in the very farm households affected.