Tuesday 18 August 2020, 9:15 AM
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THE HAGUE –
There is a negative swimming advice for the Noorder- and Zuiderstrand near The Hague. The reason is that waste water was discharged into the sea untreated on Monday evening. This was necessary because the Houtrust water treatment plant had failed due to the major power outage.
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The municipality of The Hague warns in a message on Twitter about the contaminated water off the coast. There is a high risk of stomach and intestinal complaints.
The negative advice applies to the Noorderstrand up to and including the Zwarte Pad and to the Zuiderstrand. According to the data, the water quality at Kijkduin is sufficient for swimming.
Power failure
Of Power failure arose on Monday morning around 11.10 am due to a short circuit in the main distribution station near the power plant. The damage turned out to be greater than expected and network operator Stedin only succeeded eight o’clock to restore power to all 37,000 affected connections.
The Houtrust water treatment plant also came to a standstill. As a result, polluted water ended up in the sea for nine hours. ‘When the pumping station could be used again, it was decided to discharge a large amount of wastewater untreated into the sea. ‘This is not pure waste water but has already been diluted, partly because other pumping stations have discharged extra water into the surface water and through the rainwater of yesterday evening’, according to the Delfland Water Board.
Swimming ban jetty
The Water Board says that no worrying values in the surface water were measured on Tuesday. ‘Our measurements of the surface water have so far shown few effects of pollution: the oxygen concentrations in the water are good, the smell and color of the water too, and we don’t see any dead fish yet.’
Rijkswaterstaat has also conducted research into bathing water. The Central Holland Environment Agency announced on Tuesday afternoon that the results of that investigation are expected on Wednesday. Until then, there is a negative swimming advice.
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