Drinking water supply in the Netherlands is of a high standard compared to many other countries. Extreme conditions, such as the 2018 drought, pose a serious challenge the sustainability of drinking water supply. Recent research identifies hydrological, technical, and socio-economic characteristics that determine the sustainability of a local drinking water supply system.
2018 (extreme), and 2019 (high) (Van Engelenburg et al., 2021).
Sustainable water systems can be defined as water systems that are designed and managed to contribute to the current and future objectives of society, maintaining their ecological, environmental, and hydrological integrity. Ideally, drinking water supply operates independently of weather conditions. In practice, however, the domestic water demand increases strongly during dry and warm periods.
Within the Vitens supply area, the average daily supply volume during the summer period June–August over the years 2012–2017 was approximately 965,000 m3 d-1. During the period 27 June–4 August 2018, the daily supply volume exceeded this average summer volume by approximately 28 %, with an average volume of nearly 1,240,000m3 d1 (see figure). On 25 July 2019, the maximum daily water supply even reached nearly 1,390,000m3 d-1, which was 42% above the baseline daily supply. The monthly drinking water supply volume in July 2018 of 38 millionm3 per month was an increase of 18% compared to the previous maximum monthly
supply volumes.
Although the drinking water supply infrastructure is typically designed with an overcapacity to meet the regular demand peaks, the flexibility to more extreme peaks or to long periods of peak demand is limited. The groundwater reserves in the Veluwe area are large, and more than enough to provide drinking water for months or even years without rainfall. Groundwater recharge in the area is even projected to increase due to wetter winters (Van Engelenburg et al. 2018). Yet the capacity of the infrastructure to deal with strong seasonal variations in water demand is a limiting factor, and significant investment in infrastructure or a change in domestic water use during drought are needed to guarantee a sustainable drinking water supply in times of drought.
Further reading
Van Engelenburg, J.; E. van Slobbe; A. J. Teuling; R. Uijlenhoet & P. Hellegers (2021), Sustainability characteristics of drinking water supply in the Netherlands. Drinking Water Engineering and Science, 14, 1–43, doi:10.5194/dwes-14-1-2021.
Van Engelenburg, J.; R. Hueting; S. Rijpkema; A. J. Teuling; R. Uijlenhoet & F. Ludwig (2018), Impact of changes in drinking water extraction and climate change on groundwater-dependent ecosystems in a complex hydrogeological system. Water Resources Management, 32(1), 259–272, doi:10.1007/s11269-017-1808-1.