Marc sees the house almost swallowed by water from an old clay pit: “I have never experienced this before” (Rijkevorsel)

In the Oude Goorstraat in Rijkevorsel, the Civil Protection started pumping out water from an old clay well on Wednesday. Due to the heavy rain in recent months, the water level was high and a nearby house was in danger of flooding.

The Oude Goorstraat is closed to traffic at the intersection with Opstal. There are pipes to drain the water from one of the two former clay wells to the Delleloop. It was local resident Marc Meeussen who raised the alarm on Sunday. “We have been living in the former director’s home of the closed brick factory in Sint-Jozef Rijkevorsel for three years,” says Marc. “There is a pond of three hectares behind the house. This was created by the former clay extraction for the factory. Behind our pond is another old clay well that now contains water. A dike separates the two ponds, but last weekend water from the other clay pit started flowing over the dike into our pond.”

“The water level of our pond started to rise and came very close to the back of our house. The Civil Protection brought sandbags on Sunday to stop the water. I was then told that it was not necessary to pump water from the other pond, but they started doing it on Wednesday.”

Separate sewerage

Marc is now pumping water from his own pond, but he fears that it will take some time before the level returns to normal. “I have never experienced this in three years. The bench and lamppost on our lawn are partly submerged in water. I strongly suspect that this is the result of the separate sewerage system that was installed two years ago in the Oude Goorstraat. The rainwater must infiltrate into the ground. This does not go smoothly due to the clay soil in this area and then you get problems in wet periods like now,” says Marc Meeussen.

The Civil Protection pumps out 24,000 liters of water per minute. “On Sunday we received a report of the problem with the pond,” says Public Works Councilor Bob Van den Eijnden (CD&V) of Rijkevorsel. “The Civil Protection wanted to pump the water to the Dessel-Schoten canal, but that distance was too great. After consultation with the province at the beginning of this week, we received approval to drain the water to the Delleloop, which can handle that. Rain is still forecast this weekend and next week, so something had to happen to happen.”

“We will also discuss with Pidpa whether the drainage in the vicinity of the Oude Goorstraat can be optimized. Of course, these remain clay soils that are difficult for water to pass through. Moreover, a lot of rain has fallen in recent months, which you can still notice in many places,” concludes Bob Van den Eijnden.