Sustainable Water Use: Finnish Water Management in Sparsely Populated Regions

Abstract

In Finland, 1 million inhabitants of the population (5.4 million) live in sparsely populated areas. Since 2004, the Finnish legislation requires that every house outside the municipal sewer networks must have a water purification system that meets the minimum purification requirements for phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic matter. Existing dwellings were given an adaptation period of ten years, during which they would have to make the necessary investments. In our study, we focused on making research on the functionality of small-scale purification systems in 30 different households and on dissemination of information about the purification systems and the legislation to concerned property owners. The purification performance of the plants was monitored by traditional sampling and continuous on-line water quality sondes. The study was focused at determining how much the fluctuations in the incoming wastewater quality affect the purification performance. The main results showed that the small-scale purification systems function generally well if they are properly installed and regularly maintained. Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Several recommendations on how to prevent faults in installation of the systems and how to encourage property owners to maintain their systems were made.