Drought: pumping ban in 3 regions in West Flanders

This morning there was a provincial drought consultation for the second time this year and it was decided that from tonight a recording ban will apply to certain watercourses. It’s about the Heulebeek in the Ledegem regionthe River stream in Oostkamp/Wingene and de Kemmelbeek in the Westhoek.

“can’t do anything else”

Governor Carl Decaluwé: “Good, we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks, because rain is not predicted. So unfortunately we have to intervene in that way. The main thing is that thanks to the good coordination of the Flemish Waterway, the Polders are ok for the time being because a lot of water from the canal reaches the Polders via Ghent, Bruges, Ostend and Passchendaele. That’s still all working out, but if it doesn’t rain in the next two weeks we will have to monitor the matter there too. Let’s hope for agriculture that it won’t come to that.”

The inflation ban may come as a surprise as the spring was very wet.

“It has indeed rained a lot. We see that the groundwater table is still good overall, but we are talking about the surface waters here. They are also ecologically vulnerable and that is why we have to intervene in part. We have no choice,” says governor Decaluwé.