They still find it difficult to look at an image of their old, destroyed house. Arjan Bolks (57) and Gerjanne Stoeten (39) take a look at the photo of their home, which shows a NRCphotographer in 2023. The front has disappeared, been demolished, the individual rooms on two floors and the walls and doors can be seen. It looks like a dollhouse.
Stoeten and Bolks are sitting in the kitchen of their brand new house, built on the site of the old one. They are happy with their modern home. But on the day the big cranes arrived to demolish their old house, it was a tough pill to swallow. Bolks once bought it from his deceased brother and lived there for thirty years.
The reason their home had to be rebuilt from the ground up can be seen from their living room window: a canal.
There is a 34 kilometer canal between Almelo and De Haandrik in Overijssel, where dredging work was carried out between 2011 and 2016 to make it suitable for larger shipping. Residents in houses near the water suddenly noticed damage to their homes in the following years. Foundations collapsed, walls cracked and roofs started leaking. In total, at least four hundred houses were damaged, along a length of about five kilometers between the towns of Beerzerveld and Daarlerveen.
Dragging process
What followed was popularly called the ‘canal drama’. The damage itself was annoying enough, but the real drama, according to many victims, was the handling of it by the province, responsible for the canal. It started with various studies commissioned by the province that – to the dismay of residents – did not provide clear evidence that all damage was directly related to the canal. The province nevertheless came up with a damage settlement that went further than was legally required, emphasized then deputy Bert Boerman. Yet, according to many victims, this arrangement barely covered the repair costs.
For some victims, the claim settlement process became a drawn-out process that lasted for years, and distrust in the province and government grew. Of the 400 claims, there are still 186 households that cannot reach an agreement with the province. The National Ombudsman investigated the recovery process at the canal in the summer of 2024 and published a number in October devastating conclusions. Victims are uncertain about their future, find communication from the province poor and experience unequal treatment in damage repair.
Those who received compensation are sometimes given the cold shoulder. ‘Why have they already been helped and we haven’t?’
But now, at the end of 2024, there seems to be a breakthrough. Before the summer, the province brought in Christian Union celebrity Arie Slob as an independent “administrative leader” to find a solution. Where the province cannot reach an agreement with a victim, Slob steps in as a mediator. He started working on the most dire damage cases and recently achieved his first success: thanks to Slob’s mediation, two houses along the canal were completely rebuilt, at the expense of the province. Is this the beginning of the solution?
In the struts
Anyone who drove along the canal a few years ago and looked at the houses on either side of the water noticed remarkably less damage than they do now. Some of the four hundred houses with damage were partially or fully supported, but the biggest problems occurred inside the houses. Residents found cracks in the walls due to subsidence, jamming doors, leaking roofs and uneven floors.
Anyone who drives along the canal now clearly sees that something is going on. In a striking number of gardens in Daarlerveen, Vroomshoop or Geerdijk there are signs saying ‘For Sale’ in gardens. Some houses are empty and you can see that the inside has been gutted. Its residents have moved, or are living temporarily at campsites or in rental houses, until their home is renovated. You will also see many brand new houses. Restoration work is in full swing, there are fences everywhere with the names of construction companies on them.
“We absolutely do not want to destroy the province,” says Gerjanne Stoeten emphatically. “We reached an agreement with the province. Some people say: we are forced to demolish our house because of the canal, so the province should come up with the amount for a completely new home. But you also have to remain a bit realistic,” she says. The couple realizes that they are lucky because they were able to contribute money themselves. “Many people in this area are elderly, they are not going to take out a new mortgage,” says Stoeten.
Peter Blok (62) will be the last to deny that progress has been made in repairing the damage. Blok is a board member of the Kant nog Wal foundation, which represents the interests of affected canal residents, and he has been working for the foundation for years, sometimes thirty hours a week, in addition to his full-time job.
Different wind
“It’s not all bad,” he begins his story. “Three advices for damage settlements from Arie Slob have now been approved by the province, and he has submitted two more advices. There is clearly a different wind blowing at the province, because I did not expect that she would agree without a fight.”
On the one hand, the victims who have already received compensation are happy that they can get on with their lives, says Blok. On the other hand, there are many crooked faces. “People who receive compensation are sometimes given the cold shoulder by others. ‘Why have they already been helped and we haven’t?’”
After their claim settlement had been completed, Stoeten received many questions from neighbors and other victims. “I always said: we are satisfied and I don’t want to say anything else about it. Because there are of course people who wonder why we don’t ‘fight on’ against the province.”
Precisely because of the sensitivity of the issue and the crooked faces in the neighborhood, not many victims want to tell their story in the media, let alone with their names. “Some are so done with the canal,” says Blok. “They want to continue living without that negativity. I recognize that myself. The canal is really a trauma for some.”
In the doorway of her newly built house in Vroomshoop, a woman (41) explains that she was one of the first victims to accept compensation from the province: 26,000 euros. “A joke.” Now she sees that others who waited are receiving a higher amount. When her house was completed in February, after living in a mobile home for almost a year, she found peace.
People who don’t have a deal yet don’t have that peace of mind yet. A little further on in Vroomshoop, a man (49) points out the cracks in the front of his house. Nothing has been repaired to his house yet. On the other side of his driveway, at the neighbors’ house, the house is visibly being completely renovated. For the man that feels somewhat lopsided. “Three years ago I was offered an amount that I could do nothing with.” He hears “good stories” about Arie Slob. “I expect he will come by.”
More human and gentler
Former minister Arie Slob is cautiously encouraging victims to hope for a positive outcome. He can contact directors to speed up claims procedures, a new and unique position in the Netherlands, says Slob in his office on an industrial estate in Vriezenveen, about five hundred meters from the canal. “Handling of the damage had to be more humane, milder and fairer. Mona Keijzer wrote this in her report about the canal. But how do you do that?”
Slob set up a team and spoke to about twenty victims, Kant nog Wal, the municipalities around the canal and officials at the province. “You first just listen very carefully to residents,” he says. “I have sat at the table with crying people, people who sometimes can no longer work because of all the tensions.”
His political experience helps to understand the administrative side of the matter, Slob thinks. He does not think that claims settlement came to a standstill because the province was blind to the suffering of victims, but because the province worked on the basis of a scheme to which exceptions were difficult to make. “Civil servants simply need a framework, because it concerns public money. I also explain this to residents. And I also say that the same province now offers space for me. I have the opportunity to offer customization.”
I have sat at the table with crying people, who sometimes can no longer work due to the tensions
Residents can request mediation by Slob via Kant nog Wal, their municipality or the province. “People who can express their story well and sound the alarm more loudly have already made a lot of progress,” says Peter Blok of Kant nog Wal.
Slob gave priority to the most “distressing cases”, which he selected on the advice of municipalities, the province and Kant nog Wal. “Distressing cases involve, for example, houses that are under support,” says Slob. “And I also look at non-material factors. Some victims are old or have become ill from the black mold that spreads through all the moisture around them. I’m bringing some weight with me when I get involved. I or someone from my team will call the province. What about this? Or why haven’t these people heard anything for so long?”
Slob also arranged that the ‘contact points’ that each resident has with the province are given a financial mandate. For example, they may approve expenditure to have ‘minor’ damage that is not covered by the scheme – such as a collapsed garden path – repaired.
Fear of subsidence
Slob offers the victims confidence in a good outcome. That confidence was suddenly dented again at the end of September, when the province announced that more than 43 kilometers of banks of the canal were unstable. This mainly concerned concrete and steel sheet piling from the 1970s and 1980s. The repair will cost years of work and tens of millions of euros. “People who live along the canal were shocked,” says Blok. Even people who currently have no damage are afraid that their houses may be affected by subsidence. “People our foundation had never heard of before are suddenly on the phone,” says Blok.
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Blok found the letter that the province sent out to announce the news to be vague. “It has not been made clear which places along the canal are really bad, so people are now wondering: is it in front of my house?”
Slob also saw the effect of the letter. “At such moments you notice that trust is very fragile,” he says. “The way the province communicates with residents can be improved. Once we have helped the dire cases, I will also work for better communication.”
The man in Vroomshoop with cracks in his house, whose damage still needs to be repaired, has been quite concerned since he heard the news about the banks. “Suppose the province pays for the damage,” he says. “Then she probably wants a signature that the matter has been resolved. But what if new damage occurs?”
Do Gerjanne Stoeten and Arjan Bolks share the same concerns? “No,” says Stoeten cheerfully. Their new foundation can withstand subsidence in the ground. “Our house now stands on 34 piles.”