People in Sweden are being advised to bathe in the sea and urinate in bushes to avoid toilet flushing as the risk rises for water shortage in groundwater reservoirs and in watercourses in eleven counties.
On Tuesday, Swedish weather service SMHI issued a notice of risk of water shortage in groundwater reservoirs in Stockholm, Uppsala, Halland and Östergötland counties. A similar risk notice was previously been issued for Västra Götaland, Jönköping, Kalmar, Gotland, Skåne, Kronoberg and Blekinge counties.
In Västra Götaland, in addition to low groundwater levels, there are also low river flows in the larger rivers Tidan, Viskan (downstream of Kinna) and Ätran. Low flows in watercourses are also found in some other counties.
According to SMHI, the risk of water shortage in the eleven counties will persist for at least a few weeks to come.
"But it is governed by the weather. It cannot be ruled out that there will be more announcements about the risk of water shortages in the future," said Julia Zabori, hydrologist on duty at SMHI.
The warnings come as heat is set to return to many parts of Sweden, where summer has seemed rather less than summery recently, with hail, torrential rain and strong winds in much of the country. But now the heat is coming back in many areas.
Along the west coast and in Skåne, temperatures are expected to be between 22 and 28 degrees over the next few days.
"It is not impossible that we will start talking about a heat wave if the temperature stays above 25 degrees for at least five days in a row," said Kristin Sahlström, meteorologist at SMHI.
The temperature is expected to generally rise in many parts of the country over the weekend. The exception is northern Sweden, which will get some rain on Saturday, keeping the temperature down.
"After that, it will be more stable in the north, while in the south there is a risk of heavier showers from Sunday – but with continued high temperatures," said Sahlström.