To avoid a shortage of drinking water in 2030, a package of measures must be adopted quickly: this approach is urgent, because some municipal drinking water companies already have too few reserves, says the RIVM authority in a new report that confirms the previous ones .
Water must be retained longer and more water resources must be created, for example by storing more in dunes or reservoirs, says NOS citing the RIVM report. Drinking water companies that need more capacity (almost immediately) are Waterbedrijf Groningen, Vitens (in Friesland, Overijssel, Gelderland, Utrecht and Flevoland) and Dunea in western Zuid Holland. The demand for drinking water will certainly be greater in 2030 than today, writes RIVM: it is therefore expected that 1.4 billion cubic meters will be needed, 100 million cubic meters more than in 2020, the reference year of the report.
This intervention, says RIVM, is necessary because the number of inhabitants and the economy will have grown, but also because of climate change: in hotter summers, more drinking water is needed, while there is less available due to the Drought.
The Cabinet wants water consumption per person to fall to 100 liters a day by 2035: drinking water is made up of surface and groundwater and it is not certain whether there will be enough water to produce potable water in seven years’ time.
An imminent shortage can be solved by taking several measures at the same time, advises the RIVM: In addition to the conscious and economical use of water and the longer storage of fresh water in the Netherlands, it is necessary to search for new extraction sites, expand licenses and increase the buffer capacity in dunes and reservoirs. In addition, purchasing drinking water from overseas may be considered.
