A few heavy rain showers in recent days have not changed the picture. In the Achterhoek it is already bone dry again.
There is spraying and the water board even pumps water from a river down the road. However, the interventions have hardly any effect for the time being. Locks are dry, the dust blows high when working the land and robbery shows dry spots. The call for drastic measures is increasing.
“Our buckets were full at the beginning of February. There was water everywhere. And now? Now it is almost finished,” says dike-grave Hein Pieper of the Rijn en IJssel Water Board. Omroep Gelderland.
“The area is becoming drier and drier,” says dairy farmer Benno Rondeel in Hengelo (Gelderland). “Last year it was like being here in Africa. Now there are still brown spots. So you can see my pastures are not recovering during the winter months.”
5.4 million cubic meters of water
The farmers and the water board are looking at the Vitens water supply company. This pumps up 5.4 million cubic meters of water in the area each year, to provide drinking water to some 100,000 inhabitants.
“If I am thirsty, I want to be able to drink water. But I wonder if this area can still cope with Vitens pumping up so much water here,” says Dijkgraaf Pieper.
Business in need
The water company responds with understanding, but sees no simple solution. “If you look at the Achterhoek, we only use 6 percent of the available water,” says director Jelle Hannema of Vitens. “More than 60 percent of the available water ‘disappears’ through evaporation in nature. Then you also have sprinkling by farmers. And the industry that needs water.”
Hannema says she understands the farmers. “They see their company in need now that the water system is reaching its limits. But in the short term I have no solution. We are in the middle of climate change. With more extreme weather and higher water consumption.”
Vitens is investigating whether the water can be pumped up elsewhere. “But then you ask a lot of us. We want to make a new distribution of pumping stations, but that means that we remove a pumping station here. That costs money. And elsewhere we have to build something new. That also costs money. That bill will come ultimately to the customer, “says Hannema. “If there is a good story on the table, we would like to move. But that is not really arranged in the short term.”
Step over your own shadow
“A new water extraction location, you don’t just go there,” says deputy Peter van ‘t Hoog of the province of Gelderland. “When granting the permit, you see whether it is possible. And here it was possible.”
The province is now trying to get farmers, water board, politics and the water supply company around the table, in order to find a solution. “It is clear: everyone has to step over their own shadow if we indeed want to have water later,” says Van ‘t Hoog.
Farmer Rondeel remains concerned. “I also understand that we have to do it together. And that we also have to examine our business operations. But I don’t know if my son – who wants to take over our company – will be able to run a farm with pleasure.”
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