The Meuse threatens to flood plots

The heavy rainfall of recent days caused huge problems in Limburg. The precipitation has now passed, but the flooding is far from over. Moreover, a new problem threatens to arise because the Meuse overflows its banks and floods the surrounding agricultural area.

The south of Limburg in particular is having a hard time and the damage is a lot of † It has now stopped raining, but water from higher areas continues to flow downwards, causing more problems. As a result, the Meuse threatens to overflow its banks further and further and plots with crops are flooded as a result, such as with Geert Jillissen, onion grower in Cuijk in Brabant.

Plots around the Maas are full of water
"It is quite exciting here," says Jillissen on Thursday afternoon (July 15), who has a number of plots in the floodplains of the Maas. The river has already overflowed its banks in Limburg and fields full of crops are in danger of being flooded. "I have plots with maize, beets, winter wheat and a corner of potatoes along the Meuse. I think a few plots will certainly be flooded." The disadvantage of the plots is mainly in the low areas in the plot, says Jillissen: "These are plots with a kind of bowl with lows. These then fill with water and that no longer flows away. The crops then drown. those places."

There are hardly any solutions to get the water out: 'It is also impossible to pump the water away, because you can hardly get through with that greasy, muddy layer. Preventive digging of ditches is also not possible, it has to be more than 1 meter deep and hundreds of meters away.' 

Meuse water level continues to rise
The river Maas is likely to reach a record height of 5 meters higher than normal. Rijkswaterstaat's prognosis is that a flow rate of more than 2500 cubic meters per second (m3/s) of water will be achieved in the Meuse this weekend. By way of comparison: the Meuse is on average between 150 m3/s and 300 m3/s at this time of the year. The absolute winter record is 3040 m3/s. The question is whether the peak with water, which arises from the precipitation in Limburg and the Ardennes, can be flattened sufficiently so that the flooding is not too bad. 

Below is the forecast of the flow in Venlo (Limburg), by Rijkswaterstaat.

Jesse Torringa

Jesse is an editor at Boerenbusiness and focuses in particular on the arable farming sector, including grain and onions. He also closely follows the fertilizer market. In addition, Jesse works on an arable farm in Groningen with seed potatoes as the main branch.

j.torringa@boerenbusiness. Nl

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