Meet Lina Hamel

For more than 15 years, Lina has worked as a consultant specializing in environmental monitoring and dewatering water. In early 2022, she decided to take the step to Swedish Hydro Solutions, where her combination of environmental expertise, project management experience, and extensive network quickly led to a key role within the company.

– We are very happy to have Lina on our team. The combination of her competencies is extremely hard to find. We work in a fairly small industry, and many compete to recruit people like Lina, says Jakob Sjöberg, Founder and CTO at Swedish Hydro Solutions.

Worked with Swedish Hydro Solutions

Lina Hamel has worked as an environmental consultant in some of the largest infrastructure projects in western Sweden. Her expertise in both water and hydrogeology means she is used to working with environmental legislation, sustainability issues, and water treatment. In previous projects, she worked with everything from site selection studies to tender documentation and environmental monitoring during construction.

– Lina and our team already had a good relationship before she joined us. She was actually the environmental consultant for the contractor on Swedish Hydro Solutions’ very first project. After that, we worked successfully together on several others, Jakob Sjöberg continues.

– When I hired Swedish Hydro Solutions as a consultant, I always felt confident that their technology would meet the water treatment requirements. In the projects where we used treatment methods from other companies, they could not meet the required standards.

– At the same time, the people at Swedish Hydro Solutions understood our needs as a customer — the importance of a stable treatment system so the contractor can dedicate as much time as possible to production, says Lina Hamel.

From observer to team member

– For five years, I stood on the sidelines and watched Swedish Hydro Solutions grow in a market that will continue to expand significantly. I wanted to be part of that journey.

Said and done — she contacted Swedish Hydro Solutions and was hired almost immediately. Today she works as a Project Manager and also leads the company’s project management team.

Lina wanted a deep introduction to the company right from the start.

– I thought it was important to understand the full picture — everyone’s work and the different steps involved. With that understanding, you do a better job. You can collaborate, support each other, and solve challenges together.

Right after completing her introduction, Lina took over as Project Manager for the water treatment in two different sections of the Västlänken project.

Knowledgeable, driven key player

Lina possesses broad expertise and an understanding of the industry that comes from experience. As an environmental consultant, she has seen the water treatment sector develop almost from the ground up to where it is today.

– In the past, water management was mostly about pumping water away. Twenty years ago, no one would have stopped production because of poor dewatering water quality. Now the requirements for water treatment have tightened, and they will continue to increase. Today, water can cause extremely costly stoppages, which makes it legitimate to invest more in proper treatment.

The issue of dewatering water will take on an increasingly important role in future earthworks and civil projects. The question is what can be done to strengthen that understanding even further.

– One step is that the Swedish Transport Administration, as a major client of infrastructure projects and a key driver for the rest of the market, as well as municipal environmental authorities, need to set the right requirements for water treatment. Contractors do what they must, so the requirements have to come from somewhere. It’s an ongoing process that has only just begun in Sweden. The requirements introduced in the Västlänken project are an early sign that the Swedish Transport Administration has started tightening expectations — and that dewatering water is beginning to take on a stronger role.

– Another path is for us at Swedish Hydro Solutions to build good relationships with contractors and help them understand the importance of water treatment — that it is a priority. For contractors, water in an excavation is simply a problem, a barrier to production. But with the right treatment technology, they can keep production running without water becoming an issue.

There is broad agreement across the industry — from regulatory authorities and municipalities to contractors and water treatment companies — that water treatment needs to be placed on the agenda early, and that all parties must collaborate across boundaries. This is especially important as requirements will only continue to tighten.

– Today, many projects do not take water treatment into account early enough. As a result, they do not plan for the space needed to manage dewatering water. The outcome is that many projects end up with very limited room for treatment equipment. Contractors need to consider water treatment already during the design phase, so that there is space for treatment later on. If water treatment is prioritized early, those cross‑functional conversations will happen naturally, Lina Hamel concludes.