Project partners: Environmental supervision department in Huddinge municipality, Stockholm Vatten och Avfall, Norrvatten, IVL Swedish Environmental Institute
Grant: SEK 3 767 400
Project duration: 2026-07-01 – 2028-06-30
Contact person: Erik Lindblom, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute AB
Description of the project
Municipalities play a central role in protecting drinking water but currently lack shared decision frameworks for determining requirements on e.g. discharges of stormwater in water protection areas. Here, decision frameworks refer to practical guidelines, decision processes, and guidances. Today, decisions are made at the intersection of multiple regulatory frameworks and objectives. This contributes to variation in municipal practice and limits predictability for authorities and operators, preventing effective, long-term drinking water protection. The project aims to strengthen municipalities’ capacity to make well-founded decisions in supervisory and permitting processes, which often require applying the proportionality principle under the Swedish Environmental Code.The project is conducted as a co-creative policy lab involving the Miljötillsynsavdelningen i Huddinge kommun, Stockholm Vatten och Avfall, Norrvatten, and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. It combines joint workshops with practice-based case studies of real regulatory decisions in the Eastern Mälaren Water Protection Area, where working methods and guideline values can be tested and refined. The project will propose decision frameworks for supervisory and permitting processes in water protection areas and provide input for continued policy development. In doing so, it contributes to the Water Wise Societies mission to ensure good drinking water quality through strengthened risk management.
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