Clean, safe and inviting water demands stable surface-water and groundwater levels. Not too high, not too low. Our level managers ensure this using weirs, sluices and pumping stations, for instance, that naturally also have to be maintained and sometimes replaced.
Managing and maintaining a system of more than 1,500 kilometres of water courses is quite a job. We ensure that water keeps flowing and is of a healthy quality by dredging, mowing banks and removing vegetation from the water. We also take regular samples from the water and the water bed to assess whether it is clean enough. Pollution, due to oil or chemicals in the surface waters, for instance, is quickly cleared up.
All industrial and domestic waste water in our area ends up at our treatment plants. Upon arrival, coarse matter is removed. Thereafter, all sorts of biological processes treat biodegradable waste, phosphate and nitrogen in the water. Only then is the treated water returned to the surface waters. We treat about 3 billion litres of waste water a year in this way.
Muskrats are rodents that live in water courses with overgrown banks. These animals not only damage the banks, but also wreck water barriers and summer dikes, with subsidence as a possible result. Moreover, everything the muskrats excavate lands in the water. This can restrict the water’s flow. Our muskrat exterminators keep numbers under control. Combating coypus is also now an issue. This animal has only appeared in the Netherlands in recent years. Like the muskrat, the coypu also causes a fair amount of damage.
Additionally, we combat activities that threaten water quality or safety. That is what rules are for, and we are here to enforce them. For example, waste-water discharges, groundwater extraction and activities along the water’s edge or in the vicinity of our water barriers all require permits. The permit contains regulations that must be followed. If these rules are breached, we take action.
