Creeks and rivers are running dry, reservoirs are dropping and now the groundwater level in Norway is falling to a record low. NVE, the state agency that monitors Norway’s waterways, reports that it’s never been so low in July.
“The oldest recording station we have is Groset in Telemark,” Inger karin Engen of NVE (Norges Vassdrags- og energidirektorat) told news bureau NTB. “It’s 70 years old and we have never registered so little groundwater as now. Since the weather has been just as warm with little precipitation in most parts of the country, we can say that it’s representative for other areas also.”
As Norway’s drought continues this week, with no rain in sight, Engen noted that groundwater levels always vary through the year. “It’s generally lowest in the winter and then rises through the spring along with melting snow and ice,” she told NTB. “Then it falls in the summer, and rises again with rain in the autumn,”
Concerns were rising that groundwater levels will make it harder to pump up water for fighting the fires that keep breaking out. Water restrictions are also in place in most towns and cities around Norway.
newsinenglish.no staff
