Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2018, Side 68

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LAST WORDS
Northern
Exposure
Words: Paul Fontaine
I recently returned from a trip to Árneshrep-
pur, a small community on the northern
coast of Iceland, which recently became the
central point in a heated debate that has
erupted over a proposed hydropower plant,
Hvalárvirkjun. I spoke to people who sup-
ported the project, and those who opposed
it. Whatever else they disagreed on, there
was one point on which they came together:
the national government — or specifically,
Reykjavík — has forgotten them.
To be honest, you can’t really blame peo-
ple in the countryside for feeling as though
they’ve been overlooked. Whether you’re talk-
ing about road conditions off the national
highway, internet connections or stability
of electrical power, the infrastructure in the
more far-flung parts of the country leaves a
lot to be desired.
Grapevine reporters often travel into the
countryside. No matter where we go, our in-
teractions with the locals in all four corners
of Iceland is relatively the same: people are
welcoming, hospitable, and, most of all, very
eager to talk about what makes their region
special. And rightly so, as many of these re-
gions are home to the very sites of natural
wonder that draw tourists to Iceland in the
first place.
It’s that final point that raises questions
for me. Tourism is inarguably Iceland’s stron-
gest revenue stream right now. Many, if not
most, people who visit Iceland are going to
head out into the countryside at some point
to see the sites that drew them here. Would it
not behoove the national government to put
more money into improving the infrastruc-
tures of these towns and villages?
If you travel through the backroads of
the Icelandic countryside, you are likely to
see many an abandoned farmstead: empty
houses next to empty barns. We pretend the
exodus from the rural to the urban was some-
thing that happened 50 years ago; not some-
thing that is still happening today. “Iceland”
goes beyond the capital region. The govern-
ment would do well to remember that, and
put that into action, for the survival of the
country as a whole.