Tessenderlo-Ham (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The 2nd phase of the Grote Laak river cleanup, near the Tessenderlo-Ham and Laakdal border, is nearly complete. Led by VMM’s Nik Dezillie, the project aims to restore the polluted river by 2027.
As VRT News reported, the 2nd phase of the project, which focused on the area near the border of Tessenderlo-Ham, a region in the province of Limburg, Belgium, and Laakdal, is almost complete. The plan includes planting trees to help the area and bring back different types of plants and animals along the riverbanks.
This autumn, the Grote Laak river cleanup project will continue, with more environmental work planned. In addition to planting trees, the project will also focus on cleaning up contaminated materials. The Flemish Environment Agency (VMM) will move the polluted soil and other materials from the river and surrounding areas to a special storage site.
This storage site is located at Kepkensberg and is managed by Tessenderlo Group. The contaminated materials will be kept there for a long time. The stored materials will be shaped into a landscape hill and covered to make sure they don’t cause any further environmental problems.
How is the Grote Laak river cleanup project progressing?
The Flemish Environment Agency (VMM) is planning the next steps for the Grote Laak river cleanup. They will start cleaning up sub-area 4 in the second half of 2025, after July 15th, 2025, when the breeding season ends. This area is near where the Laak river meets the Grote Nete, between Laakdal and Geel.
The VMM expects to spend a year on this part. After that, they will move on to sub-area 3, which is in the Tessenderlo-Ham region, with work planned for 2026 and 2027. Once these parts are done, the entire Grote Laak river will be cleaned up.
They mentioned that this will fix the old pollution and make the river and its surroundings healthy again. This plan is the final step in a long-term project to restore the river, which will be a big achievement for the environment in the area.
The Grote Laak river, near Tessenderlo-Ham and Laakdal, is being cleaned up in a big project. The Flemish Environment Agency started this work in 2021. The river was dirty because a chemical company, Tessenderlo Group, put heavy metals into it for many years. This happened mostly before the 1990s, making the river and its area very polluted.
The company stopped putting so much pollution into the river in the 1990s. The VMM is doing the cleanup in 4 parts. The first part, which started where the pollution came from in Ham, was finished in 2022. They cleaned the riverbanks, took away dirty soil, and fixed the pollution in the water. This helps make the river and its plants and animals healthier.
The cleanup of the Grote Laak river is ongoing, with a second phase that began in September 2023. This phase focused on the area near the border of Tessenderlo-Ham and Laakdal. According to Nik Dezillie of VMM, the process involved removing polluted soil, filling in excavated areas, and restoring the environment to a cleaner state.
The project faced delays due to the unusually wet weather conditions in 2023, which slowed down the progress. However, the team was able to accelerate the work once the weather improved in early 2024. By the end of June 2024, the second sub-area had been successfully remediated.
Officials mentioned that this project is essential for restoring the Grote Laak river and ensuring that the historical pollution caused by industrial activities no longer harms the surrounding environment and communities.
“We reconnected 12 old meanders to the main course, with which we want to give the watercourse an ecological boost,”
Says Nik Dezillie.
“The old meanders were still owned by the municipalities of Tessenderlo-Ham and Laakdal. They agreed that we would reconnect those old meanders if the farmers agreed. And that worked.”
