Kristianstad is Sweden's lowest lying municipality and therefore extra exposed to extreme weather such as storms, rainfall and high water flows. The recurring floods in Helge å and Hammarsjön mean that, for several years, shelters have been built to keep the water away from the buildings.

But it is a difficult and costly job.

- If you build a shelter on unstable ground, it will sink. In some places, therefore, we must lay a foundation with pillars of lime cement to obtain a stable foundation, says Karl-Erik Svensson, project manager for the protection project in Kristianstad.

Works as a reverse pond

Kristianstad is below sea level and the shelters act as a reverse pond. Due to the special conditions, the municipality is, by law, obliged to ensure that the ramparts keep the water outside the buildings.

So far, they have come halfway through the protection wall project. The end date has been postponed and now the hopes are to be ready by 2025.

But delays are a risk.

"The high tide can come before you have managed to get up all the protection flocks," says Karl-Erik Svensson.

Changed forecasts complicate

In the winter of 2002, a catastrophe occurred when the water rose to 215 centimeters above the Mediterranean level. Hammarlundsvallen, which protects the eastern parts of the city, threatened to burst.

- The rescue service said that the water in the area could rise up the windows if the shelter had broken, says Pia Sten Andersson and shows at her house in the Hammarslund area.

As the climate changes, sea levels will rise, but no one knows how much. Right now, SMHI expects a sea level rise in Skåne of about one meter up to 2100, but no one knows for sure. Forecasts are changed regularly, which also complicates the work on the protection walls.

- I do not think that today you can work after a seawater level that may prevail in 130 years. You have to be able to build afterwards, ”says Karl-Erik Svensson.