Without Action, the Netherlands Will Run Short of Drinking Water

The Netherlands is at risk of running out of affordable, high-quality drinking water unless the government takes action now. That is the message from a new advisory report presented to infrastructure minister Vincent Karremans on Wednesday by the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure, known by its Dutch acronym Rli.

The Rli is an independent strategic advisory body that advises the Dutch government and parliament on issues relating to the physical environment. In its report, titled "Caring for water: the future of our drinking water as a shared responsibility," it warns that climate change, water pollution and population growth are placing increasing pressure on the freshwater system, the country's main source of drinking water.

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A system under pressure

The Dutch freshwater system includes everything from groundwater and rivers to lakes and ditches. It is the source of nearly all the country's drinking water, and according to the Rli, it is becoming steadily more contaminated. Pollutants such as PFAS, pesticides, and traces of medicines are increasingly being found in this water, while drought caused by climate change is reducing how much water is available in the first place.

At the same time, demand keeps rising. As the population grows and the economy expands, drinking water companies will need to produce ever larger volumes. The Rli says the challenges facing the freshwater system go beyond what individual companies can fix on their own, and that national leadership is needed.

Calls for a national drinking water strategy

The council is calling on minister Karremans to take the initiative in drawing up a national drinking water strategy. The strategy should set aside physical space for future drinking water infrastructure, define how national and regional governments will work together with water companies, and establish how all of this will be financed.

Crucially, the Rli wants this strategy to be binding rather than voluntary. It also recommends that the national government take a financial stake in drinking water companies, which would allow it to help fund the major investments needed and to coordinate more effectively across regional supply areas. Drinking water companies in the Netherlands are currently owned by provinces and municipalities.

Higher prices for heavy users

Another core recommendation involves the price of water. According to the Rli, people in the Netherlands use comparatively large amounts of drinking water and pay relatively little for it. Despite years of campaigns by both the government and water companies, consumption has barely come down.

The council argues that prices will need to rise, both to fund the necessary investments and to encourage people to use less water. To do this fairly, the Rli suggests shifting more of the bill to actual usage by replacing fixed charges with variable charges, and introducing a higher tariff for excessive use.

A familiar warning

The current alarm is not new. As far back as 2023, the public health institute RIVM warned that all ten Dutch drinking water companies could be facing shortages by 2030 if no action was taken. Several regions, including parts of Gelderland, Overijssel, Groningen and Zuid-Holland, were already running short during peak demand periods.

In 2024, the previous Dutch cabinet set a target of reducing household water use to 100 litres per person per day by 2035, down from around 128 litres at the time. So far, the campaigns to bring usage down have had little measurable effect. In January 2025, the infrastructure ministry, the provinces and the water boards together published an action plan to ensure enough drinking water by 2030, focusing on faster permitting for new extraction sites and identifying additional sources of water.

In a follow-up report in 2025, the RIVM warned that even with water-saving measures, supply could come under pressure after 2030 due to continued population growth and the deteriorating quality of source water. The institute suggested the Netherlands may eventually need to consider unconventional sources, including brackish groundwater, purified wastewater, or even seawater, although these would all require more intensive purification and changes to current laws.

Why it matters

For now, drinking water in the Netherlands is widely considered among the cleanest and cheapest in Europe. The Rli's message is that this status is not guaranteed and that maintaining it will require choices being made now, on land use, on pricing, and on the role of central government, that have largely been put off until now.