Future drinking water infrastructure, building blocks for drinking water companies for their strategic planning

Abstract

ion in 10 m Total available Available for extension Province District Public water supply Industry Agric ulture Total (in 10 m) (in 10 m) NorthBrabant North-West Brabant Land of Altena 6 3 9 15 6 South-west Brabant 75 25 3 103 150 47 Central NorthBrabant 99 61 25 185 240 55 North-east Brabant 7 15 6 28 34 6 Limburg North Limburg 17 8 11 36 55 19 Central Limburg 19 11 2 32 55 23 South Limburg 30 28 58 85 27 Jelgersma, et al (1982) calculated the annual precipitation surplus to be 7,500 10 6 m 3 . They also showed that the annual precipitation surplus does not represent the amount of abstractable groundwater water because: • In a significant part of the Netherlands the abstraction of fresh groundwater is not possible because of the presence of shallow brackish groundwater. • The water balance can, over long periods, show a much lower precipitation surplus. • Eighty percent of the annual precipitation surplus occurs in the winter months. Since groundwater levels are already high at that time of the year, the possibility of storage is reduced and a lot of water is discharged as runoff. • Dropping groundwater levels during the growing season have adverse effects on agriculture and nature. Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/536613/wio9781789060485.pdf by IWA Publishing user on 08 August 2019 KWR 00 | 00 Future drinking water infrastructure: building blocks for drinking water companies for their strategic planning 173 The permissible abstraction volume in the Netherlands is set at about 1,900x10 6 m 3 per year. This volume is not spread evenly over the country; each region has its own estimate. The abstractable volume finds its way into the Dutch groundwater and drinking water policy. It is incorporated into the Second National Drinking and Industry Water Structure Plan, which guides the provincial water planning. The groundwater plan (1987) of the Province of North-Brabant indicates that there is a need for a more detailed evaluation of the abstractable volumes but, for the time being, the general national figures have to be used. This groundwater plan set the groundwater requirements of various areas in North-Brabant against the abstractable volumes, as presented in Table 24. The table shows that in central and eastern North-Brabant demand already exceeded supply, while a further increase in demand was forecasted. The groundwater plan (1987) therefore considered it necessary, in the short term, to research alternatives to groundwater abstraction. TABLE 24 DEMAND FOR GROUNDWATER IN A 50% DROUGHT YEAR IN THE MID-1980S VERSUS THE SUPPLY OF GROUNDWATER (IN MILLION M/YEAR) (SOURCE: GRONDWATERPLAN 1987) Areas Current demand Total Supply Permanent abstractors Non-permanent Water companies Industry Agriculture Drainage Central + eastern North-Brabant 170.7 51 46 46 313.7 285 Centrale Slenk 159.0 41.4 31 33 264.4 251 Peelhorst 11.7 9.6 15 13 49.3 34 Western North-Brabant 89.9 15.7 13 6 124.6 145 Total 260.6 66.7 59 52 438.3 430