Water companies warn: a shortage of drinking water threatens future generations | Inland

Vewin states that all drinking water companies will already need more production capacity before 2030; at three of the ten companies immediately and at the other seven in the run-up to 2030, the website states. The three are Dunea (South Holland), PWN (North Holland) and Water Company Groningen. The bottlenecks that can arise initially occur in large new companies or residential areas and new houses that cannot be connected, a spokeswoman explains. Furthermore, the problems vary by region.

The drinking water supply is under pressure due to drought, salinization and an increasing demand for drinking water due to, among other things, population growth. In addition, the quality of water is deteriorating due to pollution from industry, agriculture and households.

Earlier this year, the drinking water companies also indicated that they could not guarantee that there will be good drinking water in time for the more than 900,000 new homes that the cabinet wants to build without additional measures. The companies want, among other things, that ‘more effort is made to identify, make available and protect new (including alternative) sources for drinking water in a timely manner’.

Drinking water companies must be given the space to actually use those sources, says Vewin, and ‘in addition, the quality of existing drinking water sources must be better protected’. For example, there should be no drilling for geothermal energy in drinking water areas. The companies also argue for more scope when it comes to granting permits to extract water ‘and to be able to actually and fully use these permits and more scope for financing investments in new production, purification and distribution capacity’.