Green, smelly and especially harmful. Blauwalg throws a spanner in the works for the fanatic swimmers at De Rooye Plas in Handel. The green slurry ensures that bathers cannot just take a refreshing dip without running the risk of getting sick. The municipality and the local beach tent warn of the poisonous drab.
Although the sun is shining and the mercury rises to no less than 25 degrees on Friday morning, it is silent at De Rooye Plas in Trade. Only a handful of sun worshipers fold out their towel on the swimming beach. That while it is very busy elsewhere in the province with swimming pools and lakes. The cause: a poisonous grassy layer that floats on the water of the lake: blue -green algae.
“We were quite in shock. The water looked just as nasty yesterday and there were also small children swimming.”
“Yesterday a lot of people really swam here,” says a woman who just took a seat on a towel in her bikini on the lake. “We were quite in shock. The water looked just as nasty yesterday and there were also small children swimming. That is not so smart, maybe they will all be sick soon.”
Jolijn, manager of the restaurant at the Plas, is also disappointed by the blue -green algae. “It is the start of the season, we are just starting up and the weather is wonderful. Then people want to take a fresh dip,” she says, looking at the green water. “But unfortunately that is not now.”
The municipality of Gemert-Bakel has hung warning signs with the lake, with the text: ‘Beware of blue-green algae!’, In large red letters. Yet not everyone immediately noticed that it is not wise to float in the Rooye Plas. “Two days ago I jumped in the water here,” says a woman who has just arrived with her friends. “We saw some dirt floating. But it was only later told us that there were signs. We had not seen that.”
Two mothers on the waterfront are also not aware of the blue -green algae. After a reporter draws them attention to the green slurry, the swimming children are all too quickly poured out of the water.
