Jökull - 01.12.1988, Page 54

Future organized administration — As yet it is not
clear how the groundwater as a resource will be
administrated by state authorities. Up to now the
municipalities have carried nearly all the responsi-
bilities, each on its own. The lack of centralized
institutions for information, investigation, conserva-
tion and overall administration has been felt for
some years and is rapidly becoming more serious.
The planned establishment of a Ministry of
Environment in 1989 is a big step forward in creat-
ing the necessary framework for solving the prob-
lems connected with groundwater hamessing in Ice-
land. It marks the beginning of a change in attitude
towards the importance of environmental questions.
Water is the overall solvent for the biological inter-
change of life on Earth and therefore of prime
importance for the ecological balance.
SUMMARY
The geologically youngest regions of Iceland -
Late Quatemary and Recent - are amply provided
with clean and constant groundwater. The oldest
regions - Tertiary and Early Quatemary - are on the
contrary usually deficient in affluent aquifers and
subject to seasonal fluctuation in groundwater flow.
This is most unfortunate as many fishing villages
with high demands for clean and plentiful freshwa-
ter are situated in these geologically older regions.
On the other hand the situation regarding the
younger formations is very good, as more than 60 %
of the total population are concentrated on the
southwestem comer of the country, with an easy
access to rich groundwater basins.
In the last years a new and very strong component
has been added to the spectmm of freshwater utili-
zation in Iceland, the rapidly expanding fish farming
industry. Its demands already surpass the total
extraction of the country’s communal water works.
The emplacement of the fish farms is directed by
geological factors, as the cold climate in Iceland
demands a cheap source of heat in addition to the
cold freshwater, and this is provided in the widely
distributed geothermal activity. It, in its tum, is of
course a result of the country’s geological stmcture
and history. The high temperature geothermal areas,
with the highest energy yield, are found in the Late
Quatemary Zones, where fresh groundwater is also
most abundant. These natural conditions allow fish
farming on a very large scale.
The almost explosive expansion of the fish farm-
ing has brought to the fore the possibility of
conflicts over exploitation of freshwater. It has also
suddenly drawn attention to the limits of the fresh-
water resources in the country. A rational exploita-
tion of these resources for national and common
benefits calls for a rational administration, based on
a sufficient knowledge of the resources, clear rules
of process and some centralized institution with a
clear scope of authority and responsibility. The
nature of the freshwater resources is already in prin-
ciple known as well as the pattem of their distribu-
tion over the country. There remains the work of the
quantitative and qualitative assessment of these
resources, regionally and locally, which in its nature
is a long time work, arranged in planned fashion
with due regard as to the demands at each time.
REFERENCES
Baldursson G. 1987: Population. In: Nordal J. and
Kristinsson V. (Eds.) 1987: ICELAND 1986.
Handbook published by the Central Bank of Ice-
land. Reykjavík, p. 27-36.
Björnsson L. 1979: Saga sveitarstjómar á Islandi. 2.
bindi, 451 pp. Almenna bókafélagið, Reykjavík.
(History of communal administration in Iceland,
vol. 2, in Icelandic)
Gíslason S.R. and Eugster H.P. 1987: Meteoric
water - basalt interactions. II A field study in N.E.
Iceland. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 51,
No. 10, p. 2841-2855.
Fjármála og hagsýsludeild Reykavíkurborgar 1987:
Árbók Reykjavíkurborgar 1987. 227 pp. (Year-
book of Reykjavík city 1987, in Icelandic).
Hagstofa íslands 1984: Tölfræðihandbók 1984,
Statistical Abstract of Iceland 1984. Hagskýrslur
Islands, Statistics of Iceland II, 82. 268 pp.
Published by the Statistical Bureau of Iceland.
Hall G.H. and Pétursson M. 1987: Public finance.
In: Nordal J. and Kristinsson V. (Eds.) 1987:
ICELAND 1986. Handbook published by the
52 JÖKULL, No. 38, 1988