“Do you see? It’s pitch black, that means it has never seen oxygen.” Andries Huisman takes a fresh piece of sludge from the Wadden Sea. Recently dredged and now becoming agricultural clay. “That black indicates that it is full of organic material,” says farmer Hans Vetketel from Koekange.
Sludge from the Wadden Sea is very good for healthier agricultural makers and better retains the water on dry agricultural land. For example, years of research shows. The first farmers in Drenthe such as Vetketel are now experimenting with it.
In the meantime, Waddenslib has already been a serious revenue model for agriculture. Andries Huisman is co-initiator of the companies Klaei and Farmin who turn the Wadden sludge fertile agriculture clay.
“In the past, the sludge from the Wadden Sea ports was brought to the sea and deposited again. Apart from that it is bad for nature, a few years later that sludge is in the ports again,” Huisman explains, while in Lauwersoog a dredging ship takes large bites out of the harbor bottom. Huisman lets the clay use for agriculture, dyke reinforcement and probably also in construction as a mixture instead of the environmentally unfriendly cement.
When the dredger is completely full, it sails over Lauwersmeer to a number of large depots. Not all of the sludge must dry into clay, but also desired. That means rinsing, drying and the rest does nature. Huisman is satisfied with one of the depots. “Three weeks ago this depot was freshly filled and now dried so far that it is ready for transport to the farmer.”
In addition to research, Huisman and his people must also constantly keep an eye on the quality of the sludge and later the clay. “We do that first in the harbor and later here. That is why we also work with several smaller separated depots, then you can keep better checks than with one very large depot. De Boer gets the clay with a clean land explanation.”
(story continues after the YouTube video)