It was launched two years ago. An app from the Brabants Burgerplatform to report odors in our province. In those two years, according to the makers, more than ten thousand reports were received from all over the Netherlands. That equates to an average of 100 reports per week.
The map on the stankopdekaart.nl app is quite clear: many stench reports are made in the east of Brabant. The reports concern stables and manure processors. The initiators of the app also suffer from stench. “I spend all day checking whether or not the windows and doors can be opened,” says Evert Holman from Deurne. “If I’ve been to the sea for a day, I haven’t coughed. As soon as I enter Deurne, I start to cough.”
Holman points to the map at Deurne. “Look, the livestock farms surround the village like a horseshoe. That is why it often stinks in the village. It is not just one farm or stable, but a combination of them.” Evert is part of the Stop the Stank working group, one of the action clubs that are part of the Brabant Civic Platform. An organization that was set up to bring together all smaller Brabant citizen action groups in the field of the environment.
“We try to give a voice to people who are speechless.”
He admits that after the launch of the app it has remained a bit quiet. “You can now see the reports are decreasing somewhat,” says Ruud Merks, developer of the app. According to him, reporting is easy to do. “It’s the push of a button. You don’t have to fill in all kinds of forms like you do with the environmental service.”
Notifiers can indicate how bad the smell is. “It’s a live system, so you can see where odor reports are currently being made.”
But what can you actually do with that app? Nothing at all for the time being, the initiators also know. “If you make a report to us, nothing will happen with it in the first instance. Although sometimes we can help people solve something,” says Merks. “But if you report it to the environmental service, it often remains silent there,” he says. “We try to give a voice to people who are speechless. It’s a silent protest.” The creators of the app are not satisfied with the solution capacity of the environmental service. “It’s a paper tiger.”
“I’m turning 81, I sometimes think it’s drunk that I’m doing this.”
The makers of the app do not go out to investigate how justified a complaint is. “I let go of validation,” says Merks. “Stink is very subjective. People not only complain about livestock farming or manure, but also about the neighbour’s wood smoke.” Evert Holman still hopes that the app will trigger something. “I’m turning 81. I sometimes feel drunk doing this. But I see that as an action group we achieve small things. Little by little there is hope. And that’s what we’re driving on.”
Co-activist Maria Berkers emphasizes that the stench is a symptom of something worse. “It’s about our health. People can get a lot of stress from stench. For many people it is a far-from-my-bed show. They need to be very closely confronted with the consequences. And now they are often also busy surviving.”
