Dutch minister of Infrastructure and the Environment, Mrs. Schultz van Haegen, has officially opened the largest river water storage area in the Netherlands.
The lake-like structure has been created in the Southwestern part of the Netherlands. It is landscaped to hold 200 million cubic meters of water, about the same as 46,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. Processing this huge amount of water can occur during a combination of closed flood protection barrier and a very high runoff of river water.
The scheme is the latest project of the Room For River program which gives rivers more space to protect the country from flooding.
The Volkerak-Zoommeer will be used on occasions when river water cannot be drained into the sea during a storm. The water storage area will protect 4 million inhabitants. A 35 kilometer long dike around the wetlands was reinforced as part of the area.
The project has a € 70 million price tag. It took a little over a year to create. Municipalities, water boards and safety boards were all involved in the development of this flood protection system.
The region of Volkerak-Zoommeer is 1 of the 30 locations redeveloped by ‘Rijkswaterstaat’ to give rivers more space to protect the country from flooding.
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