The dialogue must continue

In the discussion about the consequences of the war in Ukraine that the Water Industry facilitated on Friday (April 29), in addition to representatives from the Water Industry, Svenskt Vatten, several water authorities, MSB, the Swedish National Food Agency, the Swedish Chemicals Agency and the Swedish Water Association also participated.

Several aspects were discussed during the meeting, which was held digitally via Teams, including chemical supply, procurement risks, component shortages and uncertain supplier times, and concerned both operations in existing facilities and investment projects.

Before the meeting, the Water Industry conducted a survey among its members about cost developments, delivery times and changed distribution chains. Here it became clear that the dialogue must continue as the situation is currently very difficult to predict. The Water Industry members predict cost increases of between 10% and 30% over the next 6 months. In the survey, which was conducted during the latter half of April, over 50% of the Water Industry member companies believe that the uncertain situation will persist for between 1–2 years, while 30% believe that it will take 3–5 years before we see a stabilization. Furthermore, there is a risk that delivery precision will deteriorate. 30% of our members believe that this will worsen over the next 6 months, but they also emphasize that their forecasts regarding both costs and delivery times are very uncertain and therefore need to be revised continuously.

Representatives from the water and sanitation authorities stressed the importance of working both in the short and long term. Many investment projects are ongoing or will start soon. Other projects have been paused or are ongoing under temporary conditions. The need to find sustainable ways of working together for the future and to continue the conversation is therefore of utmost importance.

This concluded that the water and sanitation industry must learn to live in more uncertain times with less available information, which places greater demands on transparency and trust between market parties. This was also underlined by the member companies of the Swedish Water Industry.

The Swedish Water Industry, together with Svenskt Vatten and at the request of the partners who participated in the dialogue meeting, invites you to a new meeting to continue the dialogue on June 3, 2022.

Safety & preparedness