The province of Brabant has invested 1.4 million euros in a sustainable water filter across the border in Belgium. The phosphate filter must purify polluted groundwater in a natural way before it flows to the Groote Meer nature reserve near Ossendrecht.
The system, fully funded by Brabant, is the second filter installed to prevent fertilizers such as phosphate from ending up in nature. In 2020, the first filter was installed in the same area to remove fertilizers from the water. Due to the good experience with this, this approach is now being continued.
Phosphate
Phosphate ensures that nature managers, for example, see birch and pine trees advancing at the expense of other species in nature reserves such as the Groote Meer.
This natural method of filtering uses a layer of iron sand, a residual product of drinking water purification. If the water containing phosphate passes through this sand layer, the phosphate remains behind. The fertilizers, such as phosphates, come from a former agricultural area that is now a large basin where water is collected in Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide.
Cooperation
According to the province, the investment is the result of years of close cooperation between Flemish and Brabant governments and nature organizations within the Kalmthoutse Heide Border Park.
Brabant representative Hagar Roijackers of Nature and Environment is happy with the good cooperation with Flanders. “Nature and water simply do not stop at national borders,” she says. With these measures we provide the area with clean water that benefits biodiversity in the Groote Meer and also in the Brabantse Wal nature reserve. Water management has improved, making the new ecosystem much more resilient.”
