In some areas of the Scandinavian country, known for sparkling clean drinking water straight from the tap, chemicals are being added to make the water safe enough to consume, according to Sveriges Radio.

Bertil Sandberg, technical chief of the badly flooded Alvesta county in southern Sweden interviewed by the radio, blamed the contamination on sewage that had seeped into wells swamped by all the excess water.

Since the beginning of July, torrential rains have flooded large parts of southern and northern Sweden, cutting off roads, hindering rail traffic and leaving one seven-year-old Danish boy and a 60-year-old man dead.

A number of counties remain flooded.

TERRA.WIRE