On Friday morning, the people of Stockholm woke up to an acute warning about water shortage, but unlike those that usually go out, for example, on Gotland during the summers, it's not about a shortage of water – but about the quality of the water in Mälaren where the drinking water is taken.
Mälaren is too warm
The quantity, i.e. the amount of water, is the same, but when Mälaren becomes too warm, it becomes more difficult to produce drinking water, says Pär Dalhielm, CEO of the industry organization Svenskt vatten, whose vision is that Sweden should have clean drinking water, healthy lakes and seas.
–In the long run, we need to think about where in Mälaren the intake of drinking water is and what type of technology is used to produce and deliver the water. It all boils down to the need to finance Sweden's future water supply. We usually say that Sweden has a huge investment gap to fill in the water supply.
The climate changes, which are the basis for the rising temperature in Mälaren, mean that new conditions for creating drinking water must be created, says Pär Dalhielm.
Will happen more often
We need to find new raw water supply and review what type of water one produces drinking water from. We also need to look at how the process works, how the waterworks is built and what technology is used. But we also need, of course, to ensure that climate change does not continue.
Pär Dalhielm believes that the people of Stockholm – and other Swedes – will have to get used to this type of acute warnings.
It's like many other things related to climate change. It won't come every day. But when there are more warm summer days, this type of problem will affect the water supply. It will happen more often and we must adapt to it, he says.
