The Twents Waternet is a partnership in the field of water and climate issues between 14 municipalities in Twente, the Netherlands, and the 'Vechtstromen' Water Board. A part of this is a joint groundwater monitoring network of Enschede, Hengelo, Almelo, Losser, Wierden, Tubbergen and Dinkelland. The monitoring network consists of more than 600 groundwater monitoring points, many of which are equipped with telemetry.
Patrick Spijker, project leader at Twents Waternet, explains: 'Enschede used to be known as the textile city of the Netherlands. This textile industry used an enormous amount of groundwater. In the 1960s/70s, the textile industry in Enschede went bankrupt. That also meant that a lot of groundwater extractions stopped. The groundwater rose to the original natural situation. Moreover, Enschede is located on a moraine with plenty of loam layers in the subsoil, which caused rainwater nuisance. Consequently, now both the groundwater and rainwater flowed from the moraine to lower parts of the city of Twente. This created a major groundwater problem with a lot of nuisance for the inhabitants of Enschede. Since then, there has been an increasing focus on where the problems are in order to prevent these kinds of situations.'
In order to prevent problematic groundwater situations, Twents Waternet has decided to monitor groundwater levels. Spijker explains why Royal Eijkelkamp has installed and manages the monitoring network: 'Every municipality has a groundwater care obligation under the Water Act. We have drawn up a whole program of requirements in a public tender. Measuring groundwater levels was the most important requirement. In addition, we have also set requirements for the validation of the data so that we have reliable groundwater data. Finally, management and maintenance of the monitoring network was a requirement. After an extensive assessment of the price and quality of various providers, Royal Eijkelkamp emerged as the most favorable provider. I am proud that within the Twens Waternet we have succeeded in finding a good party to take care of the groundwater monitoring network, despite the complex tender process. Royal Eijkelkamp is installing a groundwater monitoring network of more than 600 measurement points. 400 of these are equipped with Diver water level loggers and 150 are equipped with telemetric solutions. Royal Eijkelkamp also takes care of the maintenance of the monitoring network for at least four years.'
'Moreover, I am proud that we have real-time insight into the data. This is not only good for us as a municipality, but especially for our citizens. In Enschede we have a history of groundwater nuisance. That is why it is nice that citizens themselves have access to up-to-date and reliable groundwater data. That was quite a task in Enschede, because we had about 140 monitoring wells that were still read manually. All groundwater level loggers have now been placed in the data platform. We are very satisfied with how the project went.'
'We now have a grasp on the groundwater in Enschede. A good example of our current groundwater management is the Roombeek district. Here we tackled groundwater nuisance and quality together with the Province and the Water Board. After the fireworks disaster, many residents indicated that they would like to have the stream 'de Roombeek' back in the neighbourhood. We immediately got to work. Now we extract groundwater for groundwater quality. That water is neatly purified and eventually ends up in the Roombeek. As a result, the Roombeek is also water-bearing in good weather. This is a good example of an integrated approach to water problems.'
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