So what are those problems?
“The groundwater, from which WMD makes drinking water, is becoming increasingly polluted by agriculture, industry and households,” says Leo Hendriks. “The substances found today entered the soil thirty to fifty years ago and then slowly flowed into the deeper layers. Because these substances are difficult to remove, the water has to be additionally purified by means of advanced, new purification techniques to make drinking water out of it.”
By 2027, all member states of the European Union must comply with a legal directive, which states that all water in Europe is clean and healthy. Water company Vitens already warns: “The Netherlands will most likely not achieve these ambitions without additional measures.”
The entire drinking water sector is calling for a total ban on PFAS, chemicals that are man-made and do not occur naturally in the environment. For example, WMD is increasingly seeing discharges of PFAS, medicines and industrial waste into drinking water sources. The water drinking companies are already working hard to make everything cleaner, but measures that are being taken now will only be noticeable in the soil in thirty to fifty years.
Jelle Hannema and Marike Bonhof, who form the management of Vitens, say that last year was a relatively wet year. A year without prolonged periods of drought. “A wet year should not distract from the challenges we face. Moreover, extreme rainfall and drought are two sides of the same coin: climate change.”