Norwegian cities have a big challenge in the coming years. They must ensure that increasing torrential rain can be taken away, and does not end up inside people’s houses. The Holmen district in Fredrikstad is low, and Glomma doves close by, just a couple of meters lower. Many years ago the Veumbekken flowed here. It now disappears into a culvert further up, and is closed all the way down to the river. As a result, the rainwater sometimes finds its way into the houses of Trond Bjørnnes and his neighbors instead. Trond has built a threshold in the basement as protection against the flood water that regularly comes up from the ground where he lives. Photo: Lars Håkon Pedersen / news – That applies to pretty much everyone here. The drainage system is too bad, and the stream does not take away. Then we are the ones who have to suffer, he sighs. He has spent several hundreds of thousands of kroner improving the basement after water damage, and built thresholds on which the washing machine stands. – The water seeps up from the ground, because the groundwater is so high here. But some have big thoughts for the area, where much of the storm water from the western part of Fredrikstad collects. The stream will be reopened and a promenade will be built, trees will be planted and footbridges will be laid across it. – It will be like in Venice! Then we must have a gondola ride up here, Fredrikstadmannen dreams. The floodwater will be tamed and channeled into a canal, with promenades on either side.Fredrikstad municipality/illustration: Norconsult But it will cost quite a lot. The plans to expand this with a canal from the river into the Holmen district have been there for a long time. Now the detailed planning starts, says chief engineer in Fredrikstad municipality, Anders Pettersen-Granli. Senior engineer in Fredrikstad municipality, Anders Pettersen-Granli, will expand the quay promenade with a transverse channel. Photo: Christian Nygaard-Monsen – NOK 220 million has been set aside in the first instance, but we will have detailed planning on that, and then we will know more precisely what it will cost, he says. Norwegian municipalities have largely put a lid on investments at a time of high prices and rising interest rates, and it is generally not allowed to pay for a stormwater project by increasing water and sewage charges. But the canal project in Fredrikstad can be covered with municipal taxes, since the stream was closed at the time as part of a drainage project. NB. In news’s radio feature about this, it was said that this was not possible, but this is not true. The upper part of Holmegata in Fredrikstad looked like a lake in 2019. The stream that ran here is under the street and cannot take away any water. Photo: Fredrikstad municipality Looking for laws One thing is who will pay when cities now have to refurbish streets and squares to take away more rainwater, which is predicted in the coming decades. Something else is who is responsible for the measures that must be taken. A public investigation from 2015 states that we must expect water damage of up to NOK 100 billion within 40 years. Director of Norsk Vann, Thomas Breen, calls for action from the government on responsibility and funding of measures against flooding in cities. Photo: Ola Bjørlo Strande / news Norsk Vann is the interest organization for the water industry, of which the municipalities are also members. Director Thomas Breen believes the government must get on board and complete the work with a piece of legislation that regulates the stormwater problem. – Here the government must take responsibility and place responsibility, and provide financing solutions, so that individuals do not receive large compensation claims, or that there is injustice in who finances the flood measures, says Breen. He illustrates the problem this way; if a plot owner does nothing, and the water flows on to the neighboring plot and causes damage, then he has no responsibility today. If he takes measures, and it still flows to the neighbour, then he becomes liable for damages. – It can’t be like that, he says. Promise full pressure But something happens, and the water industry is also happy about it. The Ap/Sp government has initiated work that will result in a new set of regulations. State Secretary Aleksander Øren Heen says the government is working at high pressure with new laws and regulations in the climate area, including stormwater issues. Photo: CECILIE BERGAN STUEDAL Aleksander Øren Heen is state secretary in the Ministry of Climate and Environment. – We will include this in the work with a separate climate statement, and have prioritized this after we took over the government. The question is often who will pay, and there is perhaps a bit of disagreement as to whether it is developers or the public sector, or perhaps we should get a good splicing team. But this must be done properly, and we intend to do that, says Heen. For Trond Bjørnnes at Holmen in Fredrikstad, his patience is already wearing thin, and he fears that the canal project will be too expensive for the town. – It would not have become so if it had been built when it was first damaged many years ago, he says. Then they might have been spared many flooded basements as well.
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Fredrikstad municipality will build a channel in the district of Holmen – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
