PROTECT LAKE VÄTTERN

Water is Life - Time to get real

The summer of 2025 have been very dry here in Sweden. In fact the whole year have been dry, causing the groundwater levels in the larger part of the country, to drop down to record levels. In many places the impacts are felt now, prompting authorities to advice citizens to cut back on water consumption, sometimes in ways that sounds foreign and ludicrous like when one official on the island Gotland in the Baltic sea advised the gotlanders to just drink half a glass of water – you don’t need a full glass, she claimed, while authorities just granted yet another permit for a huge limestone quarry on the small island.

This week there was an advisory going out to the Stockholm residents to save water along with a prediction….-Get used to recurring water shortages in the future. Stockholm gets drinking water from Lake Mälaren and because of high temperatures in the lake, the water treatment plant cant handle the warmer water and produce safe drinking water to the citizens, in a timely enough fashion, causing the purification process to slow down. Households situated in higher areas might not have water in the taps at all times, or might experience a dwindling water pressure.

Clearly this situation is caused by the changing climate.

We have heard for a long time now, that the Stockholm region may well need Lake Vättern as backup source for drinking water in near future. If/when in the future that happens, we are not looking at 300 000 drinking water recipients for Lake Vätterns water, but rather in the millions.

Why Lake Vätter?

In Lake Vättern there is app 73 500 million cubic meters of crystal clear and cold freshwater. the lake is fed by underground springs and it is very deep. It is Sweden’s largest drinking water source.and Europe’s 6th largest freshwater lakes.It takes 60 years for the water to turn over – making it very vulnerable to pollution. 
Lake Vättern is geologically speaking a rift valley in the landscape, formed by tectonic events a long time ago. It is surrounded by steep slopes and a breathtakingly beautiful natural landscape, rich in biodiversity and cultural sites of historic significance. People have lived around the lake and on the beautiful pastoral island Visingsö, since the inland ice melted. The lake and surrounding area is a tourist magnet and receives visitors in the millions, annually.
Lake Vättern truly is the source of life in a large part of south central Sweden.

HOW DO WE SECURE ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER IN A CHANGING CLIMATE?

 

There is a lot that need to be considered , and acted upon when it comes to securing clean and safe drinking water in a time of a changing climate. The measures in place today is utterly ineffective.

For starters we need to eliminate environmentally hazardous activities in close proximity to important freshwater sources, such as for instance mining.

For starters we need clear and effective legislation in place that prevents pollution of important freshwater sources. 

Lake Vättern has several legislative protections in place today, but none seem to prevent dire risks of pollution. For instance the whole lake is protected by EUs Natura 2000 legislation aswell as the EU Water Directive, Swedens Water protection area and the swedish Environmental Code, parts of the lake is also protected by the EU Art and Habitat Directive. 

In spite of all these legislative measures, the Swedish armed forces have been granted permits to increase activities related to shooting exercises into the lake, from previously 1000 shots per year to 69 000 shots per year. 

Since 2009 a mining company have been granted permission to test drill for rare earth elements inside the watershed area, and aim to establish a rare earth mine, 1500 meters from the lake shore, on a height of 120 meters above the lake. The mining company is now in the process to apply for a mining concession for this open pit mine in the area called Norra Kärr. It should be noted that rare earth production is among the most environmentally hazardous activities in the world.

The flaws in the legislation became obvious when we learned that noone in the world has succeeded in producing rare earths on an industrial scale, from the particular mineral in Norra Kärr, called Eudilyte. The approximately 15 different rare earth metals lies clustered together, imbedded inside the mineral Eudialyte and all 15 needs to be separated from each other to make it possible to use them in manufacturing of goods. Out of these 15 metals, only 4 of them,  drives the rare earths market – the ones that are used in permanent magnets; neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium. these metals need to be separated from the rest of the rare earth metals in the order that they occur in, in the periodic table and it is a very difficult process that require vast expertise, a lot of chemicals and energy.
Obviously it is also hard to carry out this in a cost effective way and reach substantial profit.
The company that is actively trying to establish the REE mine in Norra Kärr, close to Lake Vättern, calculate on the need for a CAPEX ( startup cost ) for this mining project, of 500 million dollars, a sum that according to experts may well be insufficient due to increasing costs in the industry.
The process to open the norra Kärr mine has been going on for 16 years now, and it seems like the company does not have a process to separate the metals from each other, in place – in essence they dont have an end product to sell today. In a recent press release they now proclaim that they will be storing the REE ore, for later. Go figure…

REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION

In a time when we need to take effective measures to secure clean and safe drinking water to citizens, we at the same time experience how for instance the mining industry are given reliefs that will make it easier and faster to open up new mines in Sweden and the european countries, measures that many experts fear will in fact mean that environmental standards will be lowered.  According to the Swedish state television’s recent investigation, 950 land areas are now claimed by mining companies all over Sweden.

To effectively protect important freshwater sources has to be considered a national security issue. After all, who can live without access to clean water? Try go without, and you quickly realize where the priorities should be placed.
It is time to get real and secure the fundamental basis for life to exist, now and for future generations.
Water really IS Life!

Carina Gustafsson, The Bedrock group – Grenna-Norra Kärr