2023-06-20 15:12:35
Sweden is unusually hot and dry for this time of the year, which is affecting harvests of crops intended for human consumption as well as feed for livestock, and increasing the risk of wildfires across much of the country.
Many are worried that the situation could be as bad as it was in 2018when crops failed, farmers had to put their livestock to emergency slaughter because they could not feed the animals and grass couldn’t be cut because of the risk of a single spark from a lawnmower starting a wildfire.
Polish firefighters were hailed as heroes that summer when they arrived in the port of Trelleborg to help their Swedish colleagues battle the record blazes.
Sweden recorded excess mortality that summer, and research suggests that more than 600 people may have died as a result of the heatwave.
“Sweden is much better equipped to handle forest fires now than in previous years,” Sweden’s civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in a press conference on Thursday alongside rural affairs minister Peter Kullgren.
“Our bow is drawn and the country is on its toes and ready to act,” Bohlin added.
Kullgren confirmed that it is already clear that harvests will be smaller than usual this year due to the dry conditions Sweden has experienced since April. It’s possible that Sweden will be able to access EU funds to assist the country, from a possible reserve package of 300 million euros, around 3 billion kronor.
“I don’t want to give any false hope that money is going to rain down from the sky, the EU, or someone else, rather all our efforts right now are going towards minimising the consequences,” he said.
Some of these efforts, he said, include changing certain regulations to increase access to animal feed, as it appears that supplies in many areas will be much lower than normal in many areas.
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