According to dijkgraaf Patrick van der Broeck, there are advantages to the alternatives. “Sandbags become saturated with water. Then you can often no longer reuse them,” he explains at 1Limburg† “These systems are durable and will last 25 to 40 years.” Also, sandbags are heavy and have to be placed piece by piece, so they take a long time to form a barrier against the water.
Experiment
During the experiment, water flowed against the alternative barriers, so that in practice it could be assessed which alternative works best. “We can now see nicely whether the water is still flowing under it. Or if the water is up to the edge, will it all remain stable and stable?”, explains Van der Broeck. “The next step is to see if the flood defense will still survive if the water flows over it or if it will burst.”
Although not all experiments went well, for example, there was a dike breach at the plastic containers, the water board looks back on the test with satisfaction. “Certainly when I look at the speed with which we can roll out these alternatives and how easily everyone should be able to do that,” says Juus Teensma, crisis management specialist at the water board.
Sandbag doesn’t disappear
The intention is that the alternatives will initially be deployed in the Heuvelland in South Limburg, in places where sudden flooding can occur. They should be an additional method of turning the water in addition to sandbags.
So the sandbag will not disappear completely, Teensma says. “Even during last year’s flood, more than 200,000 sandbags were laid to prevent as much damage as possible. You cannot prevent damage completely. There is little that can be done against such a disaster as last year.”
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