– We are very pleased to have Lina on our team. The combination of her skills is hard to come by. We work in a fairly small industry, and many are competing to recruit people like Lina,says Jakob Sjöberg, founder and CTO at Swedish Hydro Solutions.

Hired Swedish Hydro Solutions

Lina Hamel has worked as an environmental consultant on some of the largest infrastructure projects in West Sweden. Her expertise in both water and hydrogeology has made her well-versed in environmental legislation, sustainability issues, and water treatment. In previous projects, she has worked on everything from site investigations to the preparation of tender documents and environmental monitoring during the construction phase.

– Lina and we had a good relationship even before she joined us. She was actually the environmental consultant for the construction project that was also Swedish Hydro Solutions' very first project. After that, we successfully collaborated on several other projects, continues Jakob Sjöberg.

– When I hired Swedish Hydro Solutions as a consultant, I was always confident that their technology would meet the water treatment requirements. In the projects where we used treatment technologies from other companies, they couldn’t meet the established requirements.

– At the same time, the employees at Swedish Hydro Solutions understood our needs as a customer, emphasizing the importance of stable treatment so that the contractor could spend maximum time on production, says Lina Hamel.

From Observer to Participant

– For five years, I watched as Swedish Hydro Solutions grew in a market that will develop tremendously. I became eager to participate and be part of the journey.

And so she did. Lina contacted Swedish Hydro Solutions and was hired almost immediately. Today, she works as a project manager and leads the company's project management team.

Lina wanted an in-depth introduction to the company right from the start.

– I think it was important to understand the big picture and everyone's work and tasks in detail. With a comprehensive understanding, you do a better job, as you can collaborate and support each other.

Immediately after the introduction, Lina Hamel took over as project manager for water treatment on two different Västlänken contracts.

Lina has extensive knowledge and an understanding of the industry that comes from experience. As an environmental consultant, she has seen the water treatment industry develop from its early stages to where it is today.

– In the past, water management was mostly about pumping the water away. Twenty years ago, production would never have been stopped due to poor drainage water quality. Now, the demands for water treatment have tightened, and these requirements will continue to increase. Nowadays, water can cause extreme downtime costs, making it legitimate to invest more in water treatment.

The issue of drainage water will take on an increasingly significant role in construction projects in the future. The question is what can be done to further enhance this understanding.

– One step is for the Swedish Transport Administration, which is a major contractor and sets the tone for other market players, as well as environmental agencies, to set the right requirements for water treatment. Contractors do what they must, and the requirements have to come from somewhere. This is an ongoing process that has only just begun in Sweden. The requirements set during the construction of Västlänken are the first sign that the Swedish Transport Administration has started to impose stricter demands and that drainage water is beginning to play a larger role within the administration.

– Another way is for us at Swedish Hydro Solutions to build good relationships with contractors and help them understand the importance of water treatment as a priority issue. For contractors, water in an excavation is just a problem, an obstacle to production. But with the right treatment technology, they can run their production without water becoming an issue.

There is a consensus across the industry, from regulatory authorities and municipalities to contractors and water treatment companies, that water treatment must be put on the agenda early, and all parties must cooperate across boundaries. This becomes especially important considering that the requirements for water treatment will only continue to tighten.

– At present, many contractors do not take water treatment into account in the early stages. As a result, they do not plan for how much space is needed for handling drainage water. Consequently, many projects lack sufficient space for water treatment equipment. Contractors need to consider water treatment during the planning stage so that there is space for it later on. If the issue of water treatment is prioritized and addressed early, those cross-border discussions will happen naturally, concludes Lina Hamel.