It is uncertain whether there will be enough water in 2030 for the production of drinking water. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) warns about this in a report this Monday, commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
Drinking water is made from surface or ground water, depending on the region. In 2020, the year that RIVM took as the reference year, 1.3 billion m3 won water. In 2030, an estimated 102 million m3 additional must be gained.
But all ten water companies active in the Netherlands, which have a legal obligation to supply drinking water, are faced with a multitude of problems that have made water extraction increasingly difficult. Without immediate action by the national government, provinces, water boards and consumers, those extra cubic meters of water cannot be extracted, and a drinking water shortage will arise, the RIVM warns.
“For years, drinking water companies had the idea: we will arrange it. Now the limits of the system have been reached,” says RIVM researcher Robin van Leerdam. “We see just enough drinking water capacity nationally, but there are already problems regionally.”
According to RIVM, the bottlenecks are multiple. Due to a growing population and economy, there is more demand for drinking water, while drought has caused water scarcity. The surface water that can be extracted is more often salinized or polluted, as a result of which drinking water companies have to make “increasing efforts” to purify it with “increasingly more advanced methods”. This is not only expensive, but water is also lost in the process.
The drinking water companies that extract groundwater do have a permit to pump up more water, but they come up against nature conservation laws that restrict water extraction in order to keep the water level high in an area or not to disturb vulnerable nature. As a result, the license can only be partially used.
That is why they have to look for new water extraction areas. But space is scarce in the Netherlands. Moreover, the permit process is slow, and provinces that issue permits must also weigh up other (conflicting) interests, the RIVM points out. In four provinces, Gelderland, Overijssel, Groningen and the western part of South Holland, there are already not enough reserves available to guarantee immediate drinking water at peak times.
Partly for this reason, Vitens, the largest water company, had to say no to nineteen new companies when applying for drinking water supplies. Jelle Hannema, director of Vitens: “We make a selection. To give an example, for Facebook’s large data center in Zeewolde – which will no longer be there – we also received a request for drinking water. I assure you: we will not use drinking water to cool data centers.”
Dunea, the drinking water company in South Holland, refused to sign a housing deal between the province and the Minister for Housing and Spatial Planning last month. Wim Drossaert, director of Dunea, says that the housing deal contained “everything” about mobility and facilities that are needed in new residential areas, but nothing about the limited amount of drinking water or water conservation. I was told: that will come later. But I cannot guarantee that there will be enough drinking water for all housing plans.”
The drinking water companies already sounded the alarm in September. But they noticed little sense of urgency among governments, say Hannema van Vitens and Drossaert van Dunea, who also speak on behalf of the umbrella organization of drinking water companies, Vewin. Hannema: “There are so many crises in the Netherlands that drinking water is apparently not at the top of the pile.” Drossaert: “Perhaps drinking water has been too self-evident for too long.”
They feel supported by the RIVM research. This calls on the national government and the provinces to take measures: from encouraging consumers to use water sparingly, to purchasing drinking water from abroad, retaining water in wet periods instead of draining it, and speeding up permit procedures. .
‘Not a fictional problem’ p. 10-11
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 3, 2023
