DROUGHT IN DENMARK

Press, Volume C, Issue 29567, 17 July 1961, Page 5

DROUGHT IN DENMARK

Restrictions On Water (NZP.A.-Reuter) COPENHAGEN. Denmark’s tennis players, beer drinkers and housewives are hoping for rain. So are the farmers. Severe water restrictions have been introduced, and according to the water supply authorities, they will become even more severe if rain does not fall soon. Officials explain that with dry summers in 1959 and 1960 and very poor precipitation during last winter failing to produce the usual amount of water, reserves of underground water are falling "disastrously.” Early this spring, water supply authorities reminded citizens that restrictions on the use of water introduced last summer were still in force. Now, Copenhagen residents have received a “save water” circular from authorities, and copies pasted in the halls of most blocks of fiats warn occupants that it is against the law to cool drinks under running taps, and plead for care in using water. Last summer, after restrictions had been introduced banning the use of hoses or automatic sprinklers, several costly earth tennis courts in Copenhagen were literally blown into the sea because they could not be watered properly. This cost tennis clubs large sums of money. Restrictions also stopped car washing, except by authorised car washers using “Water-saving devices,” and beer-loving Danes had to drink their favourite product lukewarm. Underground water supplies, which provide much of the water used by Danish towns, fell a metre (39 inches) below normal during the dry summer of 1960, and were still about 40 centimetres below normal at the start of summer this year. Much of this underground supply has been threatened with pollution from cesspools connected to toilets in country summer cottages, where Danish city-dwellers usually spend their summer holidays. Another danger to the water supply is caused by waste juices from farmers* silage pits, which not only pollute water for drinking but kill off artificiallyintroduced sporting fish. Trout breeders have suffered heavy financial losses from these waste silage juices. A third reason for the shortage is partly due to the lack of farming land in Denmark. Reclamation projects, which have cleared up marsh areas by draining have converted them into good fanning land, have lost millions of litres water to the water supply. The marshes, natural collection points for underground water drainage from hilltops, in the past prevented the underground water level from dropping too low. Now, the country on which they lay is being fanned, and the water formerly retained by the marshes now flows into riven and out to sea. In future, Denmark will have to make the difficult choice between increasing the farm land area by further marsh drainage, or leaving the marshes to help preserve the water supply. 4