Sweden embarks on sober search for more cemetery space in case of war
Church of Sweden's national secretariat, which reflect crisis preparedness guidelines from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish Armed Forces.
ET Year-end Special Reads
Take That: The gamechanger weapon's India acquired in 2024
10 big-bang policy moves Modi government made in 2024
How governments tried to rein in the social media beast
The preparedness guidelines have been put in a new light by Sweden's decision to join NATO and tensions with Russia in the Baltic Sea region.
According to the Church of Sweden provisions, supported by legal paragraphs in Sweden's Burial Act, burial associations are responsible for ensuring the availability of enough land to bury roughly 5 per cent of the population within a parish, if needed.
The Goteborg Burial Association, which operates in Sweden's second-largest city, is currently trying to navigate the challenge of acquiring at least 10 acres (40,470 square metres) of land to ensure it can handle urgent casket burials for some 30,000 dead in case of war. That is in addition to another 15 acres (60,700 square metres) of land needed for building graveyards for regular use in Goteborg.
«The (recommendations) mean that we need more land for burial grounds and this is a phenomenon in the big cities, and a problem in the big cities, where land resources are scarce to begin with and not always sufficient to meet burial ground needs even in times of calm and peace,» said Katarina Evenseth, senior advisor at the Goteborg Burial Association.
Artificial
