A petition with about 8,000 signatures to give rights to the Maas will be presented to the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The initiative comes from Maas Cleanup, a movement of companies, organizations and citizens concerned about the river.
In total, about 8,000 signatures were collected, considerably less than the 40,000 hoped for. That is what Huub Waterfall of Maas Cleanup says. Still, he hopes that politicians will embrace the initiative.
New Zealand
It would be the first time in Europe that a river becomes a legal entity. This has already happened in New Zealand. The Whanganui River has this status there. In practice, this means that a group of stakeholders has custody of the river, and in this way can defend the interests and rights of the river.
Also read: Loophole starts petition for river rights
Contaminated
The reason for endowing the Meuse with rights lies in the large amounts of plastic that are fished out. The Maas is the dirtiest river in the Netherlands and Belgium, with 1020 waste items per 100 meters of Dutch bank. 95.8 percent of this consists of plastic.