Municipal water supply, 2005

According to the Water Works Register, Norway had 1 016 municipal water works with around 3.93 million users (85 per cent of the population) in 2005. The water works produced 697 million cubic metres of water, corresponding to an average production of 178 m³ per capita. Variations in production are mainly attributable to natural fluctuations in water use.

99 per cent had clean water

Based on the Water Works Register, 99 per cent of the people supplied by municipal water works had a satisfactory content of thermo-tolerant intestinal bacteria in their water, while 79 per cent had satisfactory levels of colour and 74 per cent had satisfactory levels of acidity (pH).

According to the water works around one third of the production is lost due to leakages in the pipeline system. Households are the main consumers of water produced by the municipal water works (41 per cent). The remaining water is delivered to the food industry (7 per cent), other industries (12 per cent) and to agricultural sector and other consumers (8 per cent).

The quality of the water varies between the municipalities (see figures 1 to 3). The main cause of negative tests on thermo-tolerant intestinal bacteria in the water is normally lack of treatment facilities in some water works, mainly in western and northern Norway. Two main causes of high acidity in the water are run-off from acidic rocks in mountainous areas and acidic rain in parts of the country. Colour in the water is mainly caused by humus from decomposed organic matter, primarily affecting lower lying areas of the country.

0.53 per cent annual water pipeline renewal

Based on KOSTRA (Municipality-State-Reporting), estimates show that there are around 42 000 kilometres of municipal water pipelines in Norway, of which around 28 per cent were installed in 1970 or earlier. During 2003-2005, the average renewal rate of water pipelines was about 0.53 per cent per year. This equals a lifetime of around 189 years, given the same rate in the future.

Gaps in water fees

In 2006, the fixed annual fee for water consumption is NOK 2 084 on average for the country as a whole. Hedmark County had the highest level (NOK 2 625 on average per year) and Oslo County the lowest (NOK 984 on average per year). When it comes to price per cubic metre of water, Hedmark had the highest price with NOK 11.69 on average, and Aust-Agder County the lowest with NOK 5.42 on average. Akershus county had the highest water connection fee (high level) with an average price of NOK 17 178. The figures presented here are estimates based on KOSTRA data. Aggregates of the KOSTRA data available in StatBank will not provide the same figures.

See also: KOSTRA: Municipal wastewater

Tables:

• Table 1 Municipal water fees, private dwelling of 120 m. County and country averages. 2006. NOK