Relive the conference 'Where does the rain go?'
Sewage overflows and floods are not only a problem in Brussels, other cities face the same problems. Therefore, on March 6 2023, we invited speakers from London, Copenhagen, Paris and Brussels to present their urban rainwater management plans at our conference. Today we are lucky to be surrounded by cities with ambitious plans, heavy investments and specific goals like swimming in their rivers, climate resilience and the health of their citizens. There was lots of attention for the theme and the speakers, people were numerous to fill the conference room. Watch the presentations here.
London - The Super Sewer
Samantha Freelove is Legacy & Sustainability Manager at Thames Tideway Tunnel, the company responsible for the construction of the Super Sewer in London. The city currently builds a huge tunnel underneath the city to stop the sewage overflows to the Thames by 2025. The tunnel will be able to hold a volume of 1,6 million m3 of water during rain events to reduce the volume of sewage overflows by 95%. Today, London discharges the astronomical yearly volume of 110 million m3 of polluted water in the Thames, in 2025 this will be reduced to 5 million m3 per year. The enormous project with a price tag of 5 billion euro will safeguard the natural environment from pollution and will protect the health of the citizens who use the river for recreation.
Copenhagen - Cloudburst Management Plan
“It was difficult, but it has been done”, with these words Lykke Leonardsen, Head Director Resilient and Sustainable City Solutions at the city of Copenhagen, describes how they developed the Cloudburst Management Plan together with all actors and citizens. It became an ambitious 1,6 billion plan for urban rainwater management and it was initiated after a huge flood of the city in 2011. 350 different projects throughout the whole city will protect the city against floods in the future. Several parcs become rain parcs, streets become rain streets and at the end of the line some tunnels will lead the water underneath the city center into the harbor. The beautiful part of the plan is that Copenhagen uses it as an opportunity to create new quality public spaces for the citizens on top of the extra green areas. The execution of the plan is well under way and will take 20 to 30 years.
Copenhagen - Cloudburst Management Plan
“It was difficult, but it has been done”, with these words Lykke Leonardsen, Head Director Resilient and Sustainable City Solutions at the city of Copenhagen, describes how they developed the Cloudburst Management Plan together with all actors and citizens. It became an ambitious 1,6 billion plan for urban rainwater management and it was initiated after a huge flood of the city in 2011. 350 different projects throughout the whole city will protect the city against floods in the future. Several parcs become rain parcs, streets become rain streets and at the end of the line some tunnels will lead the water underneath the city center into the harbor. The beautiful part of the plan is that Copenhagen uses it as an opportunity to create new quality public spaces for the citizens on top of the extra green areas. The execution of the plan is well under way and will take 20 to 30 years.
Paris - Swimming in the Seine by 2024
When Jacques Chirac was president he promised that at the end of his term the Seine would be swimmable. He clearly wasn’t able to fulfil his promise but Anita Ravlic from the city of Paris explains how the city will make this a reality by 2024. Today, 2 million m3 of polluted sewage water per year flows to the river through the sewage overflows. To reduce this to zero they developed a plan with a price tag of 1,2 billion euro. Part of the plan is the construction of a stormwater basin underneath the Square Marie Curie with a volume of 50.000 m3, the last stormwater basin of the city. In 2024 several of the Olympic swimming disciplines will be organised in the river and in 2025 swimming in the river must be accesible for everybody. This comes on top of the already existing swimming infrastructure in the Vilette Basin.
Brussels - Brussels Environment, Vivaqua and Hydria
Michael Antoine from Brussels Environment, Olivier Pireyn from Vivaqua and Boud Verbeiren from Hydria paint the Brussels water landscape, explain how they will adapt the existing overflow infrastructure and which study they are currently conducting to potentially use the Belliard stormwater basin in a dynamical way to reduce the sewage overflows. The questions asked by the public revealed a sorrow point of the Brussels plans, there is no calculated objective for a specific moment in time to reduce the 10 million m3 of sewage water yearly discharged in the Senne and the canal. Where the other cities have ambitious short-term plans, Brussels is looking at the problem at a much longer term and step by step.
Brussels - Brussels Environment, Vivaqua and Hydria
Michael Antoine from Brussels Environment, Olivier Pireyn from Vivaqua and Boud Verbeiren from Hydria paint the Brussels water landscape, explain how they will adapt the existing overflow infrastructure and which study they are currently conducting to potentially use the Belliard stormwater basin in a dynamical way to reduce the sewage overflows. The questions asked by the public revealed a sorrow point of the Brussels plans, there is no calculated objective for a specific moment in time to reduce the 10 million m3 of sewage water yearly discharged in the Senne and the canal. Where the other cities have ambitious short-term plans, Brussels is looking at the problem at a much longer term and step by step.
