Response to interpellation 2023/24:205 on the national management of the maintenance of water and sewage pipes
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the future maintenance of water and sewage pipes as well as the need for state subsidies for upgrades. L states that there is an extensive investment need and that municipalities are responsible for existing infrastructure. L emphasizes that the investigation focuses on crisis preparedness and climate adaptation 1. L argues that fees can be raised to finance maintenance and that sinking funds are possible with established investment plans 1. SD argues that deficiencies in planning are a problem and that municipalities have difficulty prioritizing underground 2 3. SD advocates for close cooperation between municipalities and the training of more engineers and pipefitters 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! Martin Westmont has asked the Minister for Rural Affairs how he and the government intend to handle the future maintenance of water and sewage pipes across the country. Furthermore, Member Westmont has asked whether state grants could become relevant to finance the upgrading of the water and sewage networks in our municipalities.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
The Government is aware that there is an extensive investment need for municipal water and sewage and that investments in the existing water and sewage infrastructure may need to increase in the future to ensure the functionality of water and sewage services. According to the Act (2006:412) on Public Water Services, the municipality has an obligation to arrange water supply and sewage in a larger context and also has responsibility for the functionality of existing pipes and facilities needed for water supply and sewage. According to the Act on Public Water Services, funds for future new investments can be earmarked, which can facilitate the maintenance of the water and sewage infrastructure.
The Government appointed an inquiry on 23 August 2022, dir. 2022:127, where, among other things, the distribution of responsibility between different actors and the need for changes to the different actors' tasks shall be reviewed. The purpose is to ensure the basic conditions for a robust and continuous delivery of water services throughout the country. The assignment shall be reported to the Government by 30 November 2024 at the latest. I look forward to taking part in the analysis and the proposals that come from the inquiry.
Martin Westmont (SD)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer.
My fundamental perception is that we are in broad agreement on the issue of the upgrading of our water and sewage network. But the question is nevertheless central and important for a society to function.
We are in a time of increased interest rates, higher food prices, and also a water and sewage fee that is increasing in several municipalities. I can take an example. One week after my interpellation was submitted, Nacka municipality increased the water and sewage fee by 23 percent. This is just the beginning. There are many municipalities that will be forced to increase the water and sewage fee very significantly in the coming years.
A question that I think is important to highlight is how it could have become like this. How can a country like Sweden, which is still a welfare state, have such large deficiencies in its planning when it comes to the maintenance of the water and sewage infrastructure?
When it comes to the infrastructure above ground, all citizens can see the deficiencies when they are out on the roads. But when it comes to the infrastructure below ground, there is nothing that the municipal residents can actually get a sense of. That is also why we have a system that involves us electing municipal politicians every four years so that they can take responsibility for the maintenance of our water and sewage infrastructure.
I intended to ask a question to the Minister. Only one of three municipalities has a long-term financing plan to carry out necessary renovations in its water infrastructure, according to Svenskt Vatten. How does the Minister view the fact that so few municipalities have a clear maintenance and investment plan, and what can the government do to ensure that those municipalities that lack such planning take it more seriously to secure important infrastructure in the municipality?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! There are several parts of this that can be highlighted. But fundamentally, the distribution networks were built primarily during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and they have a lifespan of 50-70 years. There are also costs for depreciation and interest which have previously been very low for the municipalities, as a large part of the investments were funded by state grants and contributions.
The water and sewage expansion has, therefore, been largely financed by the state, and the assets have been depreciated faster than they have been consumed. This means that connected users have had very low fees for several decades in relation to the services they have received. The understanding of the need to raise fees has therefore likely been low, because a low maintenance rate in the water networks has not been noticed in the short term, so to speak. It is only when acute problems arise that the lack of maintenance makes itself felt. It is therefore necessary to demand a lot of planning and knowledge, and that our municipal politicians avoid the acute problems by investing in the water networks.
Then one can also see what is actually required in this situation, namely: What would be required for us to have long-term sustainable water and sewage systems? Today we see that approximately 21 billion kronor are invested per year in municipal water and sewage. And according to Svenskt Vatten, these investments need to increase to approximately 31 billion kronor per year in order to be able to meet the needs, that is, an increase of nearly 50 percent. At the same time, one can see that the investment level in the renewal of the water and sewage networks, i.e., separated from the infrastructure, is approximately 5 billion kronor per year and would likely need to increase to 8 billion kronor per year according to Svenskt Vatten. Of the estimated total investment need in water and sewage of 31 billion kronor, the investments for maintenance, specifically of the pipe networks, constitute approximately 30 percent. Here one sees quite large differences in what type of investment would be needed.
Madam President! As I mentioned in my previous speech, we have systems for the way to finance this. The dominant part is fee-financed, and tax financing occurs there to varying degrees. The arrangement that exists is that, in accordance with the Water Services Act, one has the possibility to allocate funds to a fund that can be used for future new investments. One must, however, have a fixed investment plan and also have work there where one has simply ensured either to have a fixed investment plan or to review whether it concerns a specific measure in question. The funding method can therefore not be utilized for unspecified maintenance work.
We know that the renovation needs are postponed, and we know that Svenskt Vatten believes that the renewal rate needs to increase. And I look forward to receiving the investigation that looks at some of these aspects.
Martin Westmont (SD)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! As the Minister mentions, it is a matter of very many figures and large sums. Svenskt Vatten speaks of a total investment need of 560 billion. It is therefore a very interesting question how that financing is to be managed.
One reason we have ended up in this situation is that the issue has not been prioritized by, primarily, municipal politicians in many municipalities. It may not have been sufficiently attractive to invest in something that cannot be seen but exists underground. It has been more interesting for municipal bigwigs – many times from parties such as the Socialdemokraterna and Centerpartiet – to invest in some expensive art project or perhaps an unnecessarily expensive building in the municipality. The result is that important infrastructure has major deficiencies.
Madam President! I also want to point out that the Sweden Democrats have not been involved in the municipalities where these deficiencies exist. We have not been involved in governing for the last 20 years in the municipalities that will face problems with a lack of funding when it comes to infrastructure.
This is not a criticism directed at the Minister. I know that she is fully aware of the problems, and I also know that the Tidö parties are prepared to take responsibility for these issues. But many municipalities will face major problems.
The Minister mentioned in his previous contribution that the state has previously provided financial resources when it comes to the expansion of infrastructure. We are awaiting the investigation. But does the Minister have any idea where we will land? Will it be that the state provides funds to the municipalities, or does the Minister see a development such that this is an expense that the municipalities will have to manage themselves?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! One can begin by looking at what the investigator has been tasked to investigate, and what is primarily concerned is a strengthened ability to deliver water services in the event of high alert and crisis and from the impact of a changed climate. The perspectives that dominate are crisis preparedness and climate adaptation, which also affect our water pipes significantly.
If the investigator comes up with proposals for a different type of distribution of responsibility between actors, or that different actors' tasks should be reviewed to strengthen the ability to deliver water services, for example in a crisis, it can in theory also affect non-crisis situations. Therefore, we await the proposals from the investigation, but as the member mentions, this is a problem that the government has noticed. We know that the maintenance of the water and sewage networks is very neglected and that it needs to be addressed.
The renovation need is great, but the renewal rate must also increase. We therefore need to make investments now, and there are no obstacles to raising the water and sewage fee to finance increased ongoing maintenance and various types of investments in the water and sewage networks. I hope that all municipal politicians take their responsibility to deliver water and sewage services to their residents seriously. It still feels like a quite fundamental part of the work to be performed by municipal politicians, even if it may not always be the most attractive for them to perform.
Large investments are being made today. It is still 21 billion per year that is invested in municipal water and sewage, but investments need to be increased. The figures I have to base this on are that Svenskt Vatten points out a need to increase to 31 billion. I am very interested in checking the figure that the member mentioned, as that would be something new. But we are, as said, in agreement that there is a great need and that many areas today individually may need to be connected to a municipal water and sewage system. There are many parts to look at beyond reinvestments in existing infrastructure, for example, areas that have high population growth, which heavily affect sewage and water and entail large needs. In that case, one may need to review how they are distributed.
We already see the consequences of this and know that in the long run it can become more expensive to patch and repair. It is therefore very important with a planned, systematic maintenance work, and there is an opportunity to earmark funds in cases where one has a proper investment plan. It is important that one manages this in a proper way. We look forward to handling these issues once we have received the investigation.
Martin Westmont (SD)
Madam Speaker! I absolutely agree with the Minister that this is an issue that we will have to return to, not least when the investigation is complete. A majority of municipalities have begun to build up a large maintenance debt, and it is a debt that is constantly growing.
I believe it is very important that municipalities are given guidance given the deficiencies we see when it comes to issues concerning water and sewage infrastructure. We spoke earlier about the fact that there are municipal and regional water supply plans, and that is good. I also believe that one must highlight the need for close cooperation between municipalities regarding these issues.
Madam President! One final point I would like to give to the debate is that another problem we see is the shortage of personnel within water. That makes the competition distorted and the maintenance costs very high for the municipalities. It is simply necessary to train more engineers with a focus on water, plumbers and so on. Can the Minister take with him to his colleague within the Liberals, also the Minister for Education, that it is good to review the education system and train more in these areas so that Sweden will be better prepared for future challenges regarding this subject?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam President! Once again, I thank the member for the questions. It is telling that I was close to mentioning the same aspect that the member himself took up at the end, namely the supply of skills. It is recurring for me as Minister for Climate and Environment that four issues constantly end up on my desk in the end, and they are electricity supply, permit processes, infrastructure, and the supply of skills.
In many different parts of the upgrading we need to do of our society, not least in the climate adaptation work but also of the water and sewage systems, it is very clear that the supply of competence is difficult. There are funds. There is will. But to allocate the competence needed to carry out all the interventions is harder than expected. There we really need to take a holistic approach, and we do that in different ways in the work that my colleagues at the Ministry of Education carry out, not least Research Minister Mats Persson, but also through the work that we do from our side with continuing education and the opportunity for development of the competence that we have in our society.
An interesting opportunity that one could finally mention regarding the water and sewage systems is to apply for funding, for example, from the European Regional Development Fund. It is an opportunity that exists for financing of water and sewage activities, and it can be a tip for those municipalities that already now want to tackle this issue. In addition to that, the state will in every way we can ensure to support the municipalities in their important work of securing access to clean and stable water and sewage systems all around our elongated country.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.