Funeral associations in Suede are seeking to acquire enough land for something they hope they will never have to do: bury thousands of people in the event of war.
The research follows recommendations from the National Secretariat of the Church of Sweden, which reflect the crisis preparedness guidelines of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) and the Swedish Armed Forces.
Preparedness guidelines have been cast in a new light 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 paragraphs of the Swedish Funeral Act, burial associations are responsible for ensuring the availability of sufficient land to bury approximately five percent of the population of a parish, if necessary.
The Gothenburg Funeral Association, which operates in Sweden’s second largest city, is currently trying to meet the challenge of acquiring at least 40,470 square meters of land in order to be able to handle the urgent burials of some 30,000 dead in the event of war. This is in addition to the additional 60,700 square meters needed to build cemeteries for regular use in Gothenburg.
“The (recommendations) mean we need more land for cemeteries and that’s a phenomenon in big cities, and a problem in big cities, where land resources are scarce to begin with and not always sufficient to meet to the needs of cemeteries, even in times of calm and peace,” said Katarina Evenseth, senior advisor of the Goteborg Burial Association.
Together with the local municipality, which holds a monopoly on land use decisions in Gothenburg, the burial association identified a large area suitable for the construction of a large-scale cemetery for its intended purpose.
Receive national news daily
Get the day’s top news, politics, business and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
But a lengthy approval and construction process means it could take around 10 years, posing new challenges during this uncertain time.
Meanwhile, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) continues to emphasize the importance of crisis preparedness and highlights the efforts of the Church of Sweden.
“As early as 2015, the government tasked various authorities to begin engaging in civil protection planning again, and many organizations began planning, with the Church of Sweden at the forefront of this planning,” said Jan-Olof Olsson, head of critical infrastructure protection. (CIP) at MSB.
“Unfortunately, we are reminded more and more that war could come and we just need to prepare for it,” Olsson said.
Sweden pursued a policy of neutrality from the beginning of the 19th century, including during World War II.
But public opinion changed dramatically in 2022 after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading Sweden and Finland to apply to join the transatlantic alliance, concerned about the threat to their aggressive new Russian neighbor across the Baltic Sea.
Sweden and Finland sent updated civilian preparedness guides in November with instructions on how to survive in war. The guidebooks are similar to those for Denmark and Norway, although they do not mention Russia by name.
© 2024 The Canadian Press