It is very wet in Brabant. “But we cannot rule out that I will be sitting here at the table again next summer to talk about the drought,” said drought coordinator Lonneke Schilte of the De Dommel water board on Omroep Brabant’s talk show KRAAK.
It is wetter than ever and the water boards are working day and night to drain the excess water. But in a few months, paradoxically, it will probably be about the drought again. That illustrates the situation we face almost every year. “A new system needs to be introduced,” according to Schilte.
“Water just goes down.”
A system that can handle both drought and abundant rainfall. “You cannot store it and use it again months later,” says the drought coordinator. “The system doesn’t work that way. Water just goes down.” What does she think would help? Place weirs in ditches, remove tiles, deepen ditches and use less water. And ensure that we all extract less water from the ground.
In agriculture, farmers also have to retain water for longer, so that they do not have to pump it. Lonneke is the one who decides that farmers must stop pumping water during the drought. That doesn’t always make her popular.
“I do not rule out that we will talk about the drought again next summer.”
The amount of rain that fell in the past period is really extreme, confirms Schilte: “It has never rained so much since the measurements began. Almost 60 percent more rain has fallen than on average in other years.”
“It is now all hands on deck, we are going from one extreme to the other. This is what they have always warned about. But our area is sensitive to drought. We cannot rule out that I will be sitting here at the table again next summer, but then to talk about the drought,” said Schilte.
“We’re seeing water in places we’ve never seen it before.”
At the moment there is a lot of nuisance due to the heavy rain. Even the drought coordinator at the water boards is busy with it. But not only them: “I have colleagues who have been working at the water board for forty years. They see water in places where they have never seen it before.”
And that means a lot of inspections for the water board employees. “We have to ensure that the water continues to flow, otherwise it will immediately be flooded. If a lot of water comes in at the same time in narrow areas, a blockage can quickly arise due to garbage, with all the consequences that entails.”
“We will start the coming season with a nice water buffer.”
The enormous rainfall does not mean that there will be no drought problems this summer. The groundwater level is high for this time of year, but this does not solve drought. “More water goes out every year than is replenished,” says Schilte.
“I would like to look into a crystal ball, so that we can hold on to the last shower,” Schilte wishes and she simply summarizes the situation for now. “The rain in recent months has been annoying, but the advantage is that it has fallen gradually. We will start the coming season with a nice water buffer.”