STOCKHOLMS VATTENFÖRSÖRJNING OCH AVLOPP KORT HISTORIK / Stockholm’s Water Supply and Sewerage. A Brief History
The location of the settlement that became the nucleus of today’s Stockholm was a success from the point of view of water supply. A huge boulder-ridge, which provided wells with abundant supplies of water, passed through Stadsholmen – the area now referred to as Gamla Stan. The esker enters the current city area at Norrtull and continues via Södermalm in a southerly direction. At the end of the 17th century there were some 300 excavated wells in Stockholm, and this number steadily increased until 1861, when the first public water conduits were installed. Greater and denser building development, trade and commerce and an increasing number of domestic animals all led to a general deterioration in the quality of the water in the city’s wells. The risk of fire in the compact groups of timber buildings was also considerable, at the same time as the capacity of the wells for fire-fighting in general was insufficient. “Complete abstract not presented.”