By Maia and Elsa
On Nesodden we have a lot of good drinking water, however there are still a lot of problems that can arise without us knowing. Nesodden has a lot of problems with bad water quality and a lot of polluted wells. One reason for this is that we have many cabins at Nesodden. The cabins are old and often don’t have connected water. This adds to existing challenges with the quality of our water. As all the other municipalities in Norway, Nesodden tries their best to make the water as clean as possible for the people living here. On the Nesodden Council’s website, our citizens may find information about their focus areas for water quality. One aspect they find important to focus on is sustainability.
Where does the citizens at Nesodden get their drinking water from?
There are 4 municipal waterworks on Nesodden. The residents of Nesodden get their drinking water from Bleksli pond, Kirkeåsen, Jaer school and Fagerstrand.
picture: https://www.google.com/maps/@59.8148841,10.7041486,12z
How secure are these water sources?
These water sources are secure and safe to drink according to Eurofins. Eurofins is the company that does all the tests of the drinking water, in all the different municipal networks. For example, on Bleksli pond, one of the water sources, they use UV-treatment. During UV-treatment the water is disinfected for, parasites, bacteria and viruses. But before the water is sent out to the residents, it is added little chlorine. The chlorine is not dangerous, it is simply just added so we can be sure that the water is totally clean and disinfected. You cannot taste the chlorine.
What can threaten the access to clean water?
Something that can threaten this access is oil and liquid/water. Oil and grease can cause operational problems in the sewer system and in cleansing processes, that again can cause to pollution in the water. Grease can clog the wires in the sewer system, and clogging can again cause to basement flooding and overflow in the system. This grease that sometimes can occur in the system, is also food for the rats that live in the sewer pipes. So to summarize, the grease in the system can lead to problems like clogging in the pipes, channels and in heat exchanges.
Picture from: https://www.nesodden.kommune.no/handlers/bv.ashx/i783dad2c-0226-4d70-887b-bcd55bfe00f9/w800/h534/k9761b3224c5d/img_17002.jpg
We sent a mail to these companies to see if we could get some more information:
Nesodden vannvellforbund: They oversee the drinking water here in Nesodden.
VA: You can call VA if there are any problems with your drinking water.
Norva24 Aqua Power Sandnes: They are a water filtration company.
Haug Entreprenørservice AS: They build pipes for the drinking water to get the water to your tap.
Our questions were:
- We read an article written on Nesodden´s own website were it said that you were going to build a new filtration machine by 2018 but it got delayed so it was not finished before 2019. Why was it delayed and why did we need a new filtration machine?
This is the article:
- Where do Nesodden get their drinking water from?
- What drinking water problems could Nesodden possibly get in the future?
- Have we ever been in a situation were we had a lack of clean drinking water?
We got an email back from 2 of the companies they both said that these questions were hard for them to answer, and that we should send an email to our own commune to get the answers we want.
We then sent a mail to Nesodden Kommune and waited for their answer.
When you try to send an email to the commune it first goes through a help senter. They will write you an automatic mail where it says that your mail has been delivered to the right person. After this you must wait another hour, maybe even days to get an answer.
The 26.03.2020 we got an answer from VA
- It has been a hard process to build the water filtration in Nesodden and even though it said in the article that the system would be finished by 2019 it is still not finished, and they think it will be finished this year. We have had so much trouble with our water that we had to order water from Bærum in the summertime. This is very expensive, so we try to not do it that often, but when the filtration hasn’t been working properly, we haven’t had any other choice. The reason why Nesodden needs a new filtration is because, in the spring and summertime the water from Blekslitjernet has had a weird taste and smell. The water isn’t dangerous to drink, however its not very appetising.
- The places Nesodden gets our water from is Blekslitjernet, Damenga, and Bærum if we need to, but as said this is expensive and we try to avoid buying from them.
- So right now, we don’t have problem with our water, however Nesodden is vulnerable if one of our water systems brake. We know that in a few years we will not be able to have enough water for all the people living in Nesodden. The reason for this is because the population is going to grow massively here the next few years. They have had this thought in the back of their heads for quite some time now, so they will have another water solution in not to long. The solution that’s been the best so far is to build swimming pools that they load up with drinking water.
- We once had a huge problem where we were very vulnerable to our drinking water. It was summer 2018 and a lot of communes in Norway had the same problem. It was so hot that it dried up a lot of our water. This concluded with us ordering water from Bærum. This water is expensive as already mentioned, so the population in Nesodden had to use water only when they really needed to.
Sources:
https://www.nesodden.kommune.no/vei-vann/vann-og-avlop/kommunal-vannforsyning/
