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Increase and preserve freshwater reserves
Water management always has been an expertise of the Dutch. Even their King has a master title in water management… Yet, their focus is partly shifting from keeping the seawater out and staying safe, to increasing and preserving freshwater levels.
The higher likelihood of severe droughts with (possible) bans on irrigation and salination in especially coastal areas, have led to various research projects and solutions to preserve freshwater in periods of abundance to increase the availability in periods of shortage.
Actively controlled drainage
Deltares, a Dutch research institute has trailed three different concepts in the past years in the Southwestern Delta of the Netherlands to increase the availability of freshwater and to drain brackish and salt water. Two of these involves actively controlled drainage. Actively controlled drainage is constructed in different ways:
- Drain pipes no longer drain superfluous precipitation to ditches or creeks, but via vertical water collector pipes with a float to keep the level of groundwater higher, or
- Drain pipes no longer drain superfluous precipitation to ditches or creeks, but to vertical water collector tanks with pumps that infiltrate the water deeper in the soil, or
- The water level in ditches or creeks in which the drains drain superfluous precipitation, is controlled with a weir (stuw) to keep the level of groundwater higher
The video below gives an impression of how actively controlled drainage works
3 concepts
The concepts Deltares researched in the GO-FRESH project in the Southwestern Delta of the Netherlands are: the Freshmaker concept, creek ridge Infiltration (infiltration via drainage) and Drains2Buffer (actively controlled drainage). Creek ridges are ancient or historic sandy waterways able to contain and store freshwater. Interesting is that they also calculated the cost of each of the concepts:
- Freshmaker: € 4,500 to € 9,000 per hectare equalling € 815 to € 1,225 per hectare per year. This makes it only viable for high value crops such as vegetables
- Creek ridge Infiltration: € 3,200 to € 4,750 per hectare equalling € 510 to € 790 per hectare per year. Per cubic metre / 1,000 litres, the cost are € 0.16 to € 0.18 which makes it viable for arable crops like potatoes and onions
- Drains2Buffer: € 1,950 to € 2,900 per hectare equalling € 260 to € 380 per hectare per year which makes it viable for many arable crops
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