Taken from mapporn, this is the first I hear about this. I mean, I know people working in agriculture always complain about either too much rain, not enough rain and our groundwater is too low, but that we're the most affected in Europe, I didnt know
by CoffeeAndNews
29 comments
Few natural sources, a lot of ground is built upon, we do everything in our power to make sure water goes as fast as possible to the sea.
De betonering van Vlaanderen is een heel grote faktoor hier in. Verder spelen de langer wordende droogte periodes steeds meer mee.
Oftewel, de regenval.wordt onregelmatiger en tegelijker tijd stroomt het water heel snel weg naar de zee.
Because of the tears from the Belgian inhabitants.
Our infrastructure is made to get rid of water since we historically had too much. Combined with no major freshwater lakes and high population density plus intensive agriculture.
Our water management structure isn’t based on retaining water, it’s about getting rid of it as quickly as possible to prevent repeats of historic floods. Folks will definitely shout about concrete coverage in here but that’s not the biggest factor: what they fail to realise is that we actively drain fields into creeks with drainage pipes and then try to get that into rivers and canals as quickly as possible to prevent flooding, etc. As a result the water doesn’t really have a chance to seep into the ground. Additionally, this is also necessary to maintain the water levels in some canals used for shipping, which adds to the complexity of changing water management practices.
Additionally, Belgium has a lot of very water intensive industries (steel, chemistry, electronics, etc.) combined with a relatively high population density on average.
Nonsense, we have beer enough!
/s
To much concrete… as simple as that…
Because our territory is paved over so much. A lot of the rainwater doesn’t seep into the soil but directly goes in to the rivers via the sewer system. That way the groundwater table doesn’t replenish so we cannot pump it up to use. Belgium has also pumped way more than is replenished for decades so there is a deficit to fill. It doesn’t stop there. The limited area that isn’t paved over hardens in times of drought so the soil still doesn’t capture the moisture. It also makes us more vulnerable for flash floods because it decreases the amount of rainfall needed to create one. It also makes us more vulnerable for mudslides because the just hydrated topsoil can detach from the material beneath. It also …
Expect legislation in the future that penalises you for having a rock garden or a driveway. Expect water prices to rise.
There is a shitton of private illegal wells pumping free water, and dropping ground water levels in the process.
Plus the insane % coverage in asphalt, concrete, and other materials that don’t let water through. To keep ground water levels, the water needs to stay on the ground and seep in. Asphalt, concrete and etc don’t let water through and instead make it all pour down the drains, which drain into creeks and the sea, not giving the water the time to seep into the ground.
This is why wadi is now obligated with new builds. Wadi collects rain water and allows it to seep into the ground rather than dumping it all into sewers
Water infrastructure is built to serve the agricultural sector: Move any water away to the sea asap. Can’t have a field flooding, after all.
It rains too much in winter and not enough in summer.
When it rains in winter, as it’s too much, water doesn’t penetrate the soil deep enough.
It’s due to the agricultural soils being too packed because of heavy tractors.
And also from paved towns.
The cycle of natural water is greatly disturbed because of these things.
There was an interview a few days ago on la 1ere radio I think with a specialist that talks about it. It’s on the topic “Jardins Forêts” if you speak French and want to learn more.
Weird how that physical phenomenon ends at our human borders.🤨
It fits in the narrative that the Sahara will come upon Belgium if we don’t increase our already world record breaking tapwater price, though🤔
Because we like to wash our cars and flush our toilets with drinkable water, just as God intended.
Almost every large impact of resource use is due to industry, the misuse of a countries inhabitants is tiny in comparison to the voracious appetite of international trade.
We aren’t used to droughts, for generations we have built our infrastructure around preventing floods. Now we have to build in another way: trying to keep buildings cool rather than trying to keep them warm, saving the water rather than getting rid of it, etc.
We need to accept climate changes are occurring and learn from people who live in warmer regions. Ancient Indian architecture and the cave homes in Spain and Australia, the agricultural practices in Turkey and California, the ditches in San-Francisco and places that have monsoons: these people know how to live with our future climate and we should be emulating them. Let’s plant olive trees and vineyards, then we will at least have something to sell…
I’m always surprised at the stark difference with the Netherlands which is also densely populated and has quite some industry and agriculture too.
We are 70% concrete
What everyone else said – and no wetland ecosystems to absorb excess water.
Concrete and roads and lintbebouwing and no proper water infrastructure
Should be building waterbasins everywhere
They have found a solution : betonstop in 2040.
Horrendous public and town planning
The fact that this is the first you hear about this is wild.
People have been shouting about this for years. “Betonstop”, does this ring a bell??
There’s too much concrete on a too small piece of marsh lands. This will never end good.
Flanders and our building fetish will be the end of Belgium.
Although there is definitely water stress in Belgium, due to infrastructure built to channel water to the sea as fast as possible instead of retaining it, and a large impact of the industry, there are also some serious issues with how this was calculated. For Belgium for example the cooling water of nuclear plants was calculated as water that is used and then somehow ‘disappears’ from the equation, while most cooling water is of course returned to nature (I wrote a LI post about it a while back : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sofiedevolder_waterstress-belgium-flooding-activity-7111967593975963648–XTh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAXEeBcBuKykegBB0RCpa39ttK2V2Ytsmp8).
Prof. Dassargues from Université de Liège wrote a critical LI post about this particular map : [https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alaindassargues_eau-activity-7067047951491067904-RdRw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAXEeBcBuKykegBB0RCpa39ttK2V2Ytsmp8](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alaindassargues_eau-activity-7067047951491067904-RdRw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAXEeBcBuKykegBB0RCpa39ttK2V2Ytsmp8)
Boerenbond
Geographically, Belgium cannot retain excess fresh water. Hence, whenever the river flow and/or precipitation rates decrease, there will be natural shortage of water supply.
Apart from its naturally higher water supply, the Netherlands has also created artificial fresh water lakes (IJsselmeer, Markermeer) via the afsluitdijk. So, they can use those for irrigation during the droughts and heat waves.
All of our ground water is being pumped due to the too many verkavelingen.
It’s a combination of infrastructure made to drain water away as quickly as possible, and a lot of ground covered in non-porous surfaces. Apart from that it’s raining about the same amount as normal or even more, but it’s more often a large volume in a short amount of time following a period of drought. This means the ground is too hard to absorb all the water and it drains away instead of sinking in.
Ik ben een half jaar geleden overgeschakeld van frisdrank drinken naar kraanwater. ‘t Zal daarmee te maken hebben.
Áll our stress is high.
Comments are closed.