Water

Here you can read about the supply of water in Sisimiut Municipality. If you’d like to read more in general about the supply of power in Greenland, visit Nukissiorfiit’s homepage (in Greenlandic and Danish only).

On the homepage of the Home Rule you can also download an extensive report on the status of Greenland’s water supply, detailed for each of the municipalities. Download the report by clicking here (in Danish only).

Sisimiut town
Greenland has large, natural supplies of fresh, drinkable surface water. In Sisimiut, water is collected from the so-called reservoir in the close vicinity of the town. Water is also pumped to the waterworks from another lake around 2.5 km away in the mountains.

All water mains are preinsulated and electrically anti-freezed, meaning in the winter part of the year the town can also be supplied with local drinking water.

The water supply network itself can supply 882,000 cubic metres of water per year, while the two water-supplying lakes by the town have a combined annual minimum capacity of more than 7.2 million cubic metres.

Kangerlussuaq
Kangerlussuaq is in a low-rainfall area, and is thus dependent on water from Lake Taserssuatsiaq, also known as Lake Ferguson. In the case of minimum precipitation, lake capacity may be close to zero, but normally it supplies ample water for the town.

In the past the lake supplied water for greater local consumption than is presently the case, and in the future capacity is not expected to be a problem.

The water is pumped from the lake through the waterworks and out into clean water tanks, from which it is pumped to the residential and industrial users.

Itilleq
Itilleq is situated on an island without access to fresh drinking water. For this reason the water supply to Itilleq is mainly undertaken via a modern so-called RO-plant. RO stands for Reverse Osmosis, and is a process desalinating seawater to drinkable freshwater.

The RO plant and a small well close to the village supplies drinking water for the houses and the village fish processing factory.

Sarfannguit
Sarfannguit is situated on the eastern tip of an island, by a narrow strait with access to the mainland.

A water supply has been established in Sarfannguit from Lake Taserssuaq on the mainland. A pumping station conveys the water down to the village through a water main, where it’s treated and then pumped on to the houses.

The annual minimum capacity of the lake is more than 2.1 million cubic metres.