Houses without water due to a leak in Nieuwpoort

More than one million liters of water have flowed from a water pipe in THE CORNR’s basement. That’s a hotel that should open next month. “The entire -2 floor was under water, as was part of the first underground floor,” says Kristof Louagie, spokesperson for the Westhoek Fire Brigade Zone.

Due to the leak, the water supply has been cut off until 6 p.m. tonight and water is no longer flowing through the taps in some houses. The city of Nieuwpoort therefore distributes drinking water to all affected local residents.

“At 7.26 am the fire brigade received a call and the Nieuwpoort fire station went to the scene,” Louagie says. There was a large hole in the footpath due to works and from a leak in a water pipe the water flowed underground into the building. “The diameter of the tube is about 30 cm”, Louagie knows.

Excavation works must have damaged the pipe and the amount of water indicates that the problem started earlier than this morning. Utility companies are trying to fix the leak. A crane must move a concrete slab on top of the pipe.

The firefighters from the Nieuwpoort post could not handle the mass of water alone. “At 8.45 am they asked for reinforcements from the corps from Diksmuide, Kortemark and Lo-Reninge,” says Louagie. The other barracks in the Westhoek had to supply extra pumps. These were submersible pumps with a higher flow rate, necessary because the fire engines cannot access the water. The fire service expects that they will be busy pumping until tonight.