To prevent long-term flooding, in the Bergermeerpolder increases the water storage. By increasing the capacity, more water can be parked more quickly in the future. Something that didn’t happen in time during the mega showers of last summer. “We want to be prepared for the future and respond to climate change.”
That is what Maarten Poort of the Hollands Noorderkwartier Water Board says. We meet him on the edge of the water storage facility (at the former Bergen airport, ed.) where the quays and dikes are currently being raised and reinforced. “This bathtub is deepened by making the edges higher,” adds project leader Thomas Groot.
When the ‘bathtub’ is ready, a extra water inlet created. “Three very large pipes, with a valve in front,” says Poort of the water board. As a result, water can flow from the surrounding polders to the storage area more quickly, and fields, for example, are dry again sooner.
This is to the satisfaction of farmers around the Bergermeer. The Egmondse Willem Valkering felt after the nuisance in June 2021 that it is high time that measures were taken. His bulb fields were flooded for days after the cluster showers. “What they are making here now makes me hopeful,” he tells NH Nieuws about the project.
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The plans to expand the water storage near Bergen have existed for a long time. The need for this is again confirmed in a report on the nuisance from last year. The approach to so much rainfall in a short time must ‘better and faster’ was the verdict.
The expansion of the water storage will be paid for by the European Union and should be completed by the end of this year. Maarten Poort explains in less than a minute how it can go so wrong with the processing of abundant water in and around Alkmaar in the video below: