Vitens fears that it will soon no longer be able to supply drinking water to new housing estates | Domestic

The outgoing chairman of the board, Jelle Hannema, disagrees with this The Financial Times. “It is a crisis in slow motion,” he says. The cause is the changing climate and the increased demand for drinking water: due to long periods of drought, less groundwater is available, while the need for water is increasing.

According to Hannema, the shortage is already so great in some regions that there is not enough water for new-build homes. This includes areas near Amersfoort, Enschede and Hengelo.

Brabant Water, which manages the drinking water network in Brabant, recognizes the situation described. There too, the increasing demand can only just be met, a spokesperson said. “If something technically goes wrong there, or if there is a peak in drinking water demand during a summer period, disruptions in the supply for companies and homes are likely to occur.”

Fortunately, it has not yet reached the point where it is impossible to connect new homes to the grid, according to Brabant Water. “But it is by no means certain whether it can remain that way in the near future.”

In the NPO Radio 1 Journaal, Hannema calls it a ‘serious issue’, partly because it is difficult to obtain a permit to extract groundwater. “The system is getting stuck.”

In February, Vitens already reported that it would assess applications from companies to become affiliated more strictly. For example, is it really necessary to use drinking water, or can unpurified water suffice? ‘For example, drinking water is not needed to cool a data center, but it is needed to expand a hotel.’ In the first case, collecting rainwater could be a solution.

Last year, 45 applications from companies were reportedly rejected by Vitens, compared to five a year earlier.

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