Council offers free bottled water for infants

Due to high levels of manganese in the drinking water, each child up to one year of age receives ten litres of water per week.

The water samples taken in Longyearbyen show high concentrations of manganese. FHI (the Norwegian Institute of Public Health) has concluded that the manganese content is too high for the water to be given to infants, that is, children between 0 and 12 months.

More about this is available through a link on the council's page.

This means that tap water should not be given to infants or mixed into infant formula given to infants.

Longyearbyen lokalstyre (the local council) offers free bottled water to parents of infants. Each child receives ten litres per week, which can be collected at Svalbardbutikken.

A text message from the council is sent out once a month, and parents must show it at Svalbardbutikken.

It can be challenging to obtain phone numbers for parents of infants, both because some have not yet visited the health clinic and because others have not registered their child in the population register in Svalbard.

For this reason, there may be parents of infants who are not in the council's register, and the council asks them to contact it.

A link leads to the council's pages about water.

For parents of children aged 0 to 12 months: due to high levels of manganese in the drinking water, each child up to one year of age is entitled to ten litres of water per week.

Some of the water samples taken in Longyearbyen show high concentrations of manganese. FHI (the Norwegian Institute of Public Health) has concluded that the manganese content is too high for the water to be given to infants, i.e. children between 0 and 12 months.

This means that tap water should not be given to infants or used to mix infant formula.

More about this is available through a link on the council's page.

The council offers free water to parents of infants. Each child receives ten litres per week, which can be collected at Svalbardbutikken.

A text message from the council is sent out once a month and must be shown at Svalbardbutikken.

It can be challenging to obtain phone numbers for parents of infants, both because some have not yet visited the health clinic, and others have not registered their child in the population register in Svalbard.

For this reason, there may be parents of infants who have not received the text message. If so, the council kindly asks them to contact it.

Correction, 1 November 2026: an earlier version said the text message is shown at Svalbardbutikken. Parents must show the message at the shop.