Roermond thought ‘last resort’ against high water was too dangerous

During the flood in Limburg, the Limburg water board did not dare to use a channel that was specially constructed to drain high water quickly and safely. The water board was afraid that a dike breach would occur and the city center of Roermond would flood, reports 1Limburg.

The channel is also called the Green River and was constructed in the early 1990s. The channel is parallel to the Roer. The Green River was part of the “ecologically designed flood protection plan for Roermond”, it wrote magazine Land + Water at the time: “green river keeps Roermond dry”.

On Friday 17 July and Saturday 18 July a lot of water from Germany came to Roermond. The water discharge in the Roer rose to 300 cubic meters per second, where previous records hovered around 120 cubic meters. At the same time, the water of the Roer (and the Hambeek, a little further on) was also ‘pushed back’ by the large amount of water that flowed to Roermond via the Maas.

Major damage

A number of residents openly wondered why the Green River was not put into use at the time. It now appears that engineers from the water board did not dare to make an opening in the dike of the Roer, so that the water there could flow away via the Groene Rivier. “With the predicted and measured discharges and water levels, there would be a real risk of a dike breach along the Green River, possibly resulting in major damage in the city center of Roermond,” a spokesperson for Waterschap Limburg responds.

According to him, in that case a much larger part of Roermond would have had to be evacuated than was the case now. “This was now limited to the neighborhoods around the Hambeek, but in that case it would also have affected the city center and the suburb of Sint Jacob. By not using the Green River, the (increased) risk of flooding in the city center of Roermond has been averted.”

Are parts missing?

The decision on the Green River raises many questions. Is the Green River wrongly designed? Was the system not designed for the historically high water levels? Have parts been modified or disappeared since construction in the early 1990s? The Water Board is not yet able or willing to answer these questions. “The Green River is part of the broad evaluation that is now being set up,” said the spokesperson. “We hope to be able to provide more clarity about this in autumn 2021. The functioning of the system will be included in the evaluation.”

–