Funeral organizations in Sweden are looking to find enough land for something they hope they won’t have to do: burying thousands of people in the event of a war.
The search follows recommendations from the national secretary of the Church of Sweden, reflecting crisis preparedness guidelines from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish Armed Forces.
Readiness guidelines have been set in new directions by Sweden’s decision to join NATO and tensions with Russia in the Baltic Sea region.
According to the provisions of the Church of Sweden, supported by legal provisions in the Swedish Burial Act, burial societies are responsible for ensuring the availability of sufficient burial space for approximately five percent of the population in the county, if needed.
The Goteborg Burial Association, which operates in Sweden’s second largest city, is currently facing the challenge of finding at least 40,470 square meters of land to ensure it can handle the emergency coffin burials of 30,000 war dead. That’s in addition to another 60,700 square meters of land needed to build a permanent cemetery in Gothenburg.
“This (recommendation) means that we need more land for burial and this is something that happens in big cities, and it is a problem in big cities, where land resources are scarce and not always enough to meet the needs of cemeteries. in times of calm and peace,” said Katarina Evenseth, senior advisor at the Goteborg Burial Association.
In cooperation with the local municipality, which is involved in decision-making about land use in Goteborg, the burial organization has identified a large area suitable for building a large cemetery for the intended purpose.
Get daily world news
Get the day’s top news, politics, economics, and current affairs, delivered to your inbox once a day.
But the lengthy approval and construction process means it could take up to 10 years to complete, bringing further challenges in uncertain times.
Meanwhile, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) continues to emphasize the importance of crisis preparedness and highlights the efforts of the Church of Sweden.
“Currently in 2015, the government has assigned different authorities to start getting involved in public protection programs, and many organizations have started planning, the Church of Sweden is at the forefront of that planning,” said Jan-Olof Olsson, Critical Infrastructure Protection. (CIP) specialist at MSB.
“Unfortunately, we are being reminded on a large scale that war is possible and that we just need to prepare for it,” Olsson said.
Sweden pursued a policy of neutrality from the beginning of the 19th century, including during the Second World War.
But public opinion changed dramatically in 2022 after Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine, which led Sweden and Finland to apply to join the transatlantic alliance out of concern over the threat from their newly aggressive Russian neighbor across the Baltic Sea.
Sweden and Finland sent updated public preparedness guidelines in November with instructions on how to survive a war. The guidelines are similar to those of Denmark and Norway, although they do not mention Russia by name.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
