Norge trenger et overvannsgebyr – muligheter og utfordringer

Summary

With the changing climate, more extreme precipitation events are expected in Norway, and thus good stormwater management becomes more and more important. The Norwegian White Paper on stormwater in cities and towns1 proposes introduction of a stormwater fee to finance stormwater management. Today, stormwater, regardless of its degree of pollution, is defined as wastewater. Since current water and wastewater fees are considered payment for a service that is delivered through water and sewage pipes, not all types of stormwater measures can be financed through these fees. Especially blue-green solutions and naturebased solutions, i.e., those that use vegetation or multifunctional solutions such as parks with a stormwater retention function, fall outside the current fee structure. These types of stormwater measures lack financing today. In this chapter, we provide information on stormwater fee systems in selected countries outside Norway, explain different methods for estimating stormwater fees and describe the legal preconditions for the introduction of a stormwater fee in Norway. In addition, we discuss types of stormwater measures that, in our opinion, should be financed by future stormwater fees. stormwater fee, Norway, legislation, international experience, blue-green solutions, nature-based solutions