Municipal water supply, 2015

Furthermore, slightly less than 99 per cent of the same inhabitants were supplied with satisfactory water quality in terms of colour, while 97 per cent were supplied with satisfactory water quality in terms of acidity (pH). This constitutes roughly a 1 per cent increase for both colour and pH compared to the year before.

Around 1 100 municipal water works

Around 4.4 million inhabitants in Norway were connected to the 1 120 municipal waterworks located around the country (not including those serving only schools and kindergartens). This corresponds to a share of 85 per cent of Norway’s population. Dispersed across the water distributing system, this implies an average of 97 inhabitants per kilometre of pipeline. When also including private waterworks, the total is around 4.6 million inhabitants and 1 950 waterworks.

Safety and readiness plans against “unwanted incidents”

In 2015, less than 94 per cent of the municipal waterworks had a safety and readiness plan against unwanted incidents e.g. pollution hazards, failure in hygienic barriers and other technical failures, drought/flood and accidents. Furthermore, around 31 per cent of the municipal waterworks carried out safety and readiness training and 51 per cent of them updated their plan in 2015.

0.7 per cent of pipelines renewed

The renewal rate of municipal water pipelines varies from one year to another. Calculated as a 3-year moving average for the period 2013-2015, the rate of renewal is 0.69 per cent of the total pipeline system. This is around the same level as the previous 3-year average (2012-14).

The current renewal rate means that it will take almost 145 years to renew the whole pipeline system, assuming that no new pipelines are installed in the coming years.

Half the pipeline system dates from 1971 to 2000

The length of the municipal water pipelines is estimated to be nearly 45 700 kilometres; the same as the earth’s circumference at the equator. About half of the municipal pipeline system was laid between 1971 and 2000, around 3 per cent was laid before 1940 and 21 per cent between 2001 and 2015.

The age of the pipeline system for the country as a whole is estimated at 33 years. It should however be stressed that the age and quality of the pipeline systems may vary considerably between different municipalities.

Drinking water under “pressure”

Booster pumps are used in many areas of Norway to transport drinking water to consumers. There are around 2 400 such pumps around the country, which corresponds to an average of 1 booster pump every 20 kilometres of water pipeline.

If the pressure was to drop, there is a risk that polluted water from the outside may come into contact with the drinking water inside the pipelines. Thus, it is important to reduce pressure drops to a minimum by renewing old pipelines and ensuring effective routines are in place for planned stops in the water supply.

40 minutes of delivery failure

The estimated average annual technical delivery failure in the municipal water supply in 2015 was around 40 minutes per person. Around 32 per cent of this, or around 10 minutes, is related to unplanned incidents by the waterworks.

It should be stressed that the statistics here constitute average numbers, thus the reality is that some people will experience longer delivery failures compared to what the statistics say, while others will not experience failures at all.

Furthermore, around 3 800 leakage repairs were also estimated to have been carried out on the water pipeline system in 2015, corresponding to 1 leak repair per 10 kilometres of pipeline. This is around the same level as in 2014.

Leaking water pipeline system

In 2015, around one in every three litres, or around 29 per cent of the 740 million cubic metres of drinking water supplied by the municipal waterworks is estimated to be “lost” through leakage.

The leakage corresponds to 4.7 cubic metres of water per metre of pipeline system. According to KOSTRA figures (system for municipality-to-state-reporting), the loss through leakage has been relatively stable throughout the last ten years.

In comparison, around 44 per cent of water supplied by municipal waterworks to the pipeline system is consumed by households. An additional 2 per cent is consumed in holiday cottages or holiday homes. This gives a specific water consumption in the households of around 207 litres a day per person.

Income from fees and fee calculation basis almost equal

In 2015, the fee calculation basis per inhabitant was NOK 1 305, which has not changed since 2014. Income from fees was NOK 1 360 in 2014; an increase of approximately 5 per cent since 2014.

Municipal costs in the water sector are predominantly covered by fees paid by the users of the service. Regulations stipulate that fees in the municipal water and wastewater sector cannot exceed the municipality’s actual costs for providing that particular service (“self cost”). Accurately stipulating income from fees to cover the real calculation basis in a single year is complicated. Thus, the municipalities are allowed to decide on fee levels so that income from fees over a five-year period equals the fee calculation basis.

The income from fees was 3 per cent higher than the fee calculation basis in 2015. The total income from fees was about 1 per cent higher than the fee calculation basis for the 5-year period 2011-15.