The name of the river means literally "(the water) that cures the illness" (Serbian: "bol", ilneess, pain and "lečiti", to heal, to cure). Today however, the river is highly polluted, becoming merely an open sewage canal. Dumping of the sewage begins already at Vrčin, and the sewages of all the adjoining settlements, even much larger and distant Kaluđerica. As of March 2007, the projected sewage collector is still not finished. In addition, Bolečica flows through two emerging industrial zones, those of Bubanj Potok and Leštane. The dumping of industrial waste contributed to the demise of the wildlife in the river, which until the late 1990s was clear brook with small fishes and frogs, but today is dead, murky and full of waste deposits and not suitable even for the industrial use anymore.