Rawa River

Rawa
Rawa flowing through Katowice
Country	Poland
Basin features
Main source	Ruda Śląska
River mouth	Brynica, Sosnowiec
Basin size	89.8 km2 (34.7 sq mi)
Physical characteristics
Length	19.6 km (12.2 mi)

Rawa (pronounced: [ˈrava]), older name Roździanka) is a minor river (about 19.6 kilometres in total length) in Silesia, Poland. It is the largest right tributary of the Brynica, itself a tributary of the Przemsza, which in turn is a tributary of the Vistula. The entire length of the Rawa is within the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union. It has its source in Ruda Śląska and crosses the cities of , Chorzów and Katowice. Finally in Sosnowiec it joins the Brynica River only several hundred metres before the latter joins with Czarna Przemsza.

The Rawa has lost most of its natural river character, and is now mostly a sewage channel flowing underground. Works have begun in order to restore it back to an ecologically sound water flow.

The river has a source in the Marcin pond in Ruda Śląska. It flows through , Chorzów, Katowice, Mysłowice and finally Sosnowiec where it joins Brynica just before the latter joins with Czarna Przemsza.

During much of its route it flows underground, beneath the city's infrastructure. It is filled by rain, as well as sewage. It has several small confluences, such as Potok Leśny (near University of Economics in Katowice).

The river is notorious for being heavily polluted. Reported to be crystal clear in 1875, the industrialization of Silesia caused the river to become so polluted that all the fish died out by 1893. The continued growth of industry and cities throughout the 20th century, combined with little effort towards preserving the environment, continued to degrade the quality of the water in the river. In 1992, the river, leaving Katowice, was claimed to contain only 14% water, and a popular joke among the local citizens was to warn each other 'not to throw a lit match into the river'. Currently the upper part of the river is officially classified as sewage and the plan is to direct the entire river flow through a treatment plant. In the 1990s plans to improve water quality and restore the ecology of the river were begun. So far new sewage treatment plants have been completed, and the plan is supposed to significantly improve the river's quality by 2010.