Problems with the supply of drinking water are likely to arise in West Brabant, Twente, parts of Utrecht, Groningen and the The Hague-Leiden region if something is not done quickly. Vewin, the association of water companies in the Netherlands, warns against this. “And this number of areas will quickly increase if we don’t get a little more cooperation,” warns director Hans de Groene. According to him, drinking water companies are increasingly getting stuck in the granting of permits.
All ten Dutch drinking water companies must expand their production capacity before 2030 to keep up with the demand, which is still increasing in our country. In doing so, they encounter more and more problems. According to De Groene, the drinking water companies can in principle provide all people in the Netherlands – including the one and a half million people who will be added until 2040, according to the CBS – if the authorities that grant the permits cooperate a little better. He told that on Monday morning in the NOS Radio 1 news.
“We are in danger of getting stuck.”
“This involves permits to extract and purify drinking water. You must have permits to build production capacity and infrastructure.”
According to De Groene, the problems with issuing permits arise because everything is becoming more complex. “We live in a crowded country. The trade-offs with other space users are getting more complicated.” Another problem, he says, is in the capacity and knowledge of the licensing authorities. “It all takes longer than before. It’s more complicated and we risk getting stuck.”
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