Iceland review - 2014, Qupperneq 64

62 ICELAND REVIEW
borehole and is unchlorinated, and one of
the pools at Fontana Geothermal Baths in
Laugarvatn, South Iceland. “The water is
very similar to the water in [spa town] Baden
Baden in Germany,” Anna explains.
“We have this fantastic geothermal hot
water. It is one of the things which makes
Iceland so special and we should really use
this more when marketing the country
to tourists.” Anna believes the potential is
huge. “Iceland is known for its nature and
bathing in natural hot springs goes very
well with this. More hotels like the one at
the Blue Lagoon could be opened but in
four or five other locations around Iceland.
Stykkishólmur, Laugarvatn, Mývatn and
Húsavík, for example, could be built up for
tourism focused on healing through water in
combination with other activities like yoga
and massage.”
Anna points to Hungary as a shining
example of how to capitalize on geothermal
waters in marketing a destination to tourists.
“But, the waters in Hungary are low temper-
ature while Iceland has many more areas and
much more variety in temperature,” Anna
excites. Consultant for health tourism at the
the sewage gets diluted so there isn’t much
damage.”
Inevitably, though, Davíð says, increased
pressure from different actors to utilize the
groundwater resource will result in a high
probability of conflict over land use. “We
need a deeper understanding of groundwater
resources in order to use it wisely. The time
has clearly come to prepare an overview for
the whole country. As always, it comes down
to money and has not been prioritized and
has been overlooked over the years.” Davíð
points to the controversy of the building of
power stations in Iceland and the resulting
environmental impacts and loss of scenic but
unprotected areas which many relate to as
pristine environment. “Man has now unprec-
edented power to change nature. All these
actions have impacts on society. We must
have some checks and balances. More needs
to be done and in a transparent way and we
need to know about the consequences of dif-
ferent projects.” 
Hungarian Tourism Board and a board mem-
ber of the European Spa Association, Csilla
Mezösi, has described Iceland’s geothermal
water as the country’s ‘white gold,’ adding
that health tourism is still in its infancy in
Iceland.
SAfEguArDINg STrEAMS
However, pollution could damage ground-
water and put a dent in Iceland’s image
as a source of pure water. In May, oil was
spilled in a protected area above the capital’s
groundwater reserves of cold water, when an
oil tank fell from a helicopter transporting
material to a construction site. The accident
raised concerns about the risk of pollution.
There have been a string of other water
pollution cases in Iceland but Tryggvi says,
overall the situation is good. “We are just
lucky to have a small population in Iceland,
living mostly close to the coast so that in
large parts of the country there is no pollut-
ing activity. Much of the lakes and rivers are
clean, it’s mostly in lower areas where there
is any release of sewage to speak of and then
it’s mostly discharged to coastal waters where
REsOURCEs