Flood control: Tubize, the example to follow?
In Tubize, some residents found their feet in the water this summer. But they were much less numerous than in 2010! That year, the locality had experienced enormous flooding. The city center was completely under water: 1,500 homes affected. Images that remain engraved in the memory of many inhabitants.
Those who did not experience the tragedy can realize the record level of flooding thanks to commemorative plaques installed in several places in the underwater at the time. A level far from being reached this summer 2021. It must be said that, since 2010, the local authorities have invested and made the fight against floods a priority. Tubize created a specific alderman to deal with the theme, a first at the time in Belgium. One of its missions was to draw up a flood risk prevention plan.
►►► Find our special file: floods in Belgium, 6 months later
“The territory of the municipality was scanned to identify black spots”, explains Pierre Anthoine, who holds the post of alderman for the fight against floods. “The objective was to prevent water from reaching the streets of Tubize. There is no miracle cure. Each point is unique. There are places where we have made immersion zones. temporary, others where we realize an extension zone of flood. Sometimes it is just necessary to reprofile a watercourse, so that the water is evacuated more easily and to avoid blockages caused by unstable banks. “
Besides that, the city has also invested in smaller equipment: floating dams, sandbags, hydro-curator. In total, expenditure for more than 3 million euros in the fight against floods.
The importance of prevention
At the town planning level too, a code of good conduct has been drawn up. This document contains a series of advice or obligations for candidate builders.
“We must capture water and integration where it falls”, details Sabine Desmedt, the alderman for town and country planning. “To achieve this, we require anyone who builds a home to integrate a tank of at least 5000 liters which can collect all the rainwater in order to avoid going directly to the public sewers. For a permit of urbanization (creation of subdivision), we impose a storm basin whose capacity is calculated according to the number of homes and the surface areas of roads created. “
Elements which together made it possible to improve the situation. In Tubize, on the said: it is the small streams that make the big rivers.