Column by Marieke van den Boom-Witzel: Living with Water

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Alderman van den Boom-Witzel
Alderman van den Boom-Witzel

It has been exactly 30 years since, as an 8-year-old girl, I saw the waters of the Maas flooding our backyard. While many older people now describe February 1995 as a stressful time because they had to leave their homes behind, I look back on it with nothing but a smile. We built a raft with the neighborhood kids. We floated around on it for hours between the playhouse, the trees, and the soccer goal. Until the water got too high and the raft threatened to go over the garden fence. Then we had to abandon ship.

The Land van Maas en Waal has experienced major flooding in the past

Many of us still remember the high water of 1995. But of course, that was nothing compared to the flood disaster of 1926. On the morning of December 31, 1925, the dike near Overasselt broke. As a result, the entire Land van Maas en Waal region was flooded. To prevent further damage, dike reeve De Leeuw decided to Dreumel the dike in Dreumel . This allowed the water to flow back into the Meuse. No one died during the flood itself, but the water left behind extensive damage in an area that was already impoverished.

It’s an event that almost none of us have ever experienced

But it is indeed part of our history. And there are still little things that remind us of it.
Just think of Dijkgraaf de Leeuwweg and the flood-era houses that still stand there. But also the mindset we have as people from the Maas and Waler regions.

It's time to show ourselves

While in The Hague there is now talk of the 'Soil and Water as Guiding Principles' guidelines, we are accustomed to nothing less. We know what it's like to live with water. That is why the five municipalities affected by the 1926 flood disaster (Heumen, Wijchen, Beuningen, Druten, and West Maas en Waal) have united. Together, next year we will commemorate what happened and show what it has brought us. But even more importantly: together we will show how we face the future with water. Because where better to demonstrate how to live with water than in the Land of Maas en Waal?

Marieke van den Boom-Witzel,Alderman
Alderman