A burst water pipe caused a large water ballet on Geijlwijckerweg in Aalsmeer last night. And that was not the first time this week: the cycle path near the Stommeer mill also flooded on Monday evening and the fire brigade had great difficulty in closing the leak in the overhead pipe. NH found out what’s going on.
Inquiries with the municipality show that sewers are being worked on in the nearby Linnaeuslaan and the AH Blaauwstraat. “Due to the depth, heavy dewatering installations are required,” spokesperson Laura Tas of the municipality of Aalsmeer told NH.
With these installations, the groundwater is moved via pipes to a pumping station of the Rijnland Water Board, the spokesperson explains. Because the installations are owned by source dewatering company Van Velzen, NH is sounding the alarm.
Youth or water pressure?
“The couplings were pulled loose last night,” says a Van Velzen employee. He prefers not to speculate about possible perpetrators, but there is no doubt that there is vandalism.
That theory is shared by a local resident. That local resident prefers to remain anonymous, but told one of NH’s correspondents that he suspects that ‘youth’ are responsible for the defect.
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Spokesperson Laura Tas emphasizes that this is not correct. According to her, the leaks were not caused by vandalism, but by excessive water pressure.
“The pumping station of the water board failed twice yesterday,” she explains. “The result: the water remains in the pipe, while the pump continues to pump water into the pipe at the beginning. As a result, the pipe broke at a certain point.”
Wet suit for firefighters
Whether this statement also applies to last Monday’s water ballet (see photo below) is not known. Then the leak did give the fire brigade a wet suit. Yesterday, the firemen and women returned dry to the barracks.