Noord-Brabant will have to take drastic measures against a structural water shortage in the next twenty years. In particular, the use of groundwater must be reduced, the level of which has fallen sharply in recent decades. This is evident from the report presented in Werkendam on Thursday Without water, no laterof the independent drought advisory committee.
Due to the increasing demand for water in North Brabant due to a growing population and as a result of climate change with an increasing number of dry summers, there is a threat of water shortage. “We are balancing on the edge of what is still possible, but is actually no longer responsible,” said former minister Melanie Maas Geesteranus, chairman of the committee. She calls the proposed approach to the water shortage an example for other provinces and abroad.
According to the committee, companies, institutions and citizens must do their bit. Drinking water companies must ensure a 30 percent reduction in groundwater consumption through savings in households and industry and the drilling of alternative sources. the committee said. At present, the drinking water companies in North Brabant mainly pump up groundwater, often in the vicinity of nature reserves, and hardly any water from rivers. The commission gives the ‘urgent advice’ to increase the price of drinking water for large consumers and a ‘basic rate’ for consumers for ‘essential necessities’.
Also agriculture
Agriculture must also extract 20 to 40 percent less groundwater, raise groundwater levels and, especially in the vicinity of nature reserves, should not grow crops that require a lot of water. Water boards must retain and infiltrate much more water into the soil, and they must also purify more wastewater that can then be reused. In turn, the central government and the province of Noord-Brabant must help drinking water companies develop alternative water sources and also make the collection of rainwater mandatory when building homes.
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Finally, the committee advocates the appointment of an ‘authoritative’ drought director to supervise the implementation of the water plans. The plans themselves must be financed, among other things, from a new ‘drought fund’. Chairman Maas Geesteranus urges urgency: “We must take the most difficult measures first.”
Ever very wet
The measures are urgent, according to the advice, because in North Brabant, which was once known as a very wet province, a relatively large amount of water has been drained into rivers and the sea since the 1950s and 1960s. With 40,000 miles of waterways now, it can be called a “dewatering machine,” mostly for agricultural purposes.
In addition, a lot of groundwater is pumped, usually of good quality and reliable, for the benefit of households and industry. This “endless manipulation” of groundwater for human use “is not without consequences,” the report said. The ‘over-utilisation’ has led to an average decrease of the groundwater level of about half a meter since 1950. In dry periods this decrease has led to damage to nature due to, among other things, draining streams, and to reduced agricultural yields. During a drought, a “downward spiral” develops as water demand increases and more water is lost through watering farmlands and gardens, filling swimming pools and taking extra showers.
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A break in the trend, dubbed ‘reconversion’ by the commission, should prevent the impending water shortage. Water board administrators state that, as far as they are concerned, the advice is ‘not without obligation’. Kees Jan de Vet, chairman of the Noord-Brabantse Waterschapsbond and dyke of the Brabantse Delta water authority: “We have to work with us on this.” Deputy Hagar Roijjackers (Water and Nature, GroenLinks) also announces that he is looking ‘very carefully’ at the advice and that he wants to assess all proposals ‘integrally’.