Finland falling short of EU water improvement goals

Recovery of Vantaa River would require investments of EUR 386 million

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Dozens of large landing nets scoop through the still water in the Vantaa River near the rapids at the Old Town of Helsinki. Fishermen are going for whitefish which are swimming upstream to spawn.
      Heikki Mattila of Helsinki has not yet caught anything. He says that the for the fish really to move, water should be a bit colder than the present eight degrees.
     The water quality of the Vantaa River has improved; formerly an open sewer, the river has become an popular location for fishing and swimming. Nevertheless, the river is still in poor shape, as are half of Finland’s rivers, and more than 80 per cent of its coastal waters.
      In the poorest shape are the shallow bays of the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago sea, as well as rivers and lakes in agricultural areas. Their recovery is expected to take decades.
     
A third of the waters are in such poor shape that Finland will not achieve the EU target on water quality by 2015. Timetables have been pushed back in many areas to 2021 and 2027.
      Hannele Nyroos, an official at the Ministry of the Environment, says that the goal will be largely reached in the large lakes, but that the load placed on coastal waters of the Gulf of Finland by emissions from land has continued too long.
      “Old sins weigh us down. If sea areas have been under strain for 100 years, they cannot be restored in just ten.”
      The Ministry of the Environment published its water management plans on Thursday. they are aimed at improving the state of Finnish waters.
     
The task is a big one. In Uusimaa alone, the need for funding is estimated at about EUR 465 million a year.
      The Vantaa River accounts for EUR 368 million of the costs between 2010 and 2015. The calculations include environmental protection of agriculture, major improvements to the drainage system, and the costs of waste management of sparsely populated areas.
      “The ecological state of surface waters of Uusimaa is not very good”, notes Marketta Virta, director of the Uusimaa Environment Centre. “Many people live here, there are many activities, much agriculture, and disadvantageous natural conditions.”
     The Vantaa River became polluted by waste water emissions which began in the 1960s. New sewage is now centrally treated, but there are occasional overflows; large amounts of nutrients flow into the river from nearby fields.
     
The big problem for Finnish waters is eutrophication, in which agriculture plays a big role.
     Measures to fight the problem include reducing the amount of agricultural fertilisers that are used on fields, and using them more efficiently, keeping the fields covered in vegetation in wintertime, setting up protection zones between fields and waters, and more efficient use of cattle manure as fertiliser.
     Environment-based agricultural support needs to be targeted in such a way that support is given especially to sloping fields, fields with a high phosphorous content, and fields often affected by flooding.
     Much also remains to be done in waste management of sparsely populated areas, in refurbishing sewer networks, and upgrading waterways.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Pollution worst in coastal waters, lakes, and rivers of Southern Finland (17.6.2008)
  Baltic Sea panel calls for tighter emission restrictions (19.5.2008)
  Baltic Sea needs urgent attention (14.4.2008)
  Climate change boosts eutrophication in Gulf of Finland (6.3.2008)

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