Drinking water. It seems so normal and self -evident, but it is not. The IJsselmeer, one of the most important drinking water sources in Noord-Holland, is stated By (poisonous) discharges in the Rijn en IJssel rivers,, ” population growth And periods of long -term drought due to climate change are increasingly under pressure.
With long -term drought, PWN currently has a stock of just five days, which according to the drinking water company is too little in the long term. To be sure that North Hollanders have enough clean drinking water in the future, PWN wants to increase this stock.
“By having more IJsselmeer water of good quality in stock, we are less dependent on the fluctuations in the quality of this water,” explains Tim de Groot, researcher water and nature at PWN. “This way we can deliver drinking water longer in the future.”
From five to fifty days
Before this extra water supply, the so -called ‘climate buffer’, can actually be laid in the IJsselmeer, this is first experimented with a test location.
Now you mainly see flowing streams and there are bumps of sand, but the test location off the coast of the West Frisian Andijk is taking shape. De Groot: “We want to know what works and what doesn’t. You can see it as a large testing ground in which we test whether the purifying landscape improves water quality and ecology.”
That is precisely what makes this test so special, project leader Ruud van der Neut adds. “As a result, fewer chemicals and energy are needed to further purify it into drinking water.”