LIFE ON THE CANALS

The Deûle-Escaut Canal : future partner ?


D.R

Pending the return of the whole range of boating and leisure activities to the canal through Roubaix, substantial landscape enhancement works have been carried out by the Syndicat Mixte du Canal de Roubaix in collaboration with local associations. An example is the timber platforms for anglers illustrrated here.


The VEV project is under close scrutiny by leaders of another TERRA project Grootstad. They describe here the project they are involved in, for restoration of the cross-border canal from the Deûle in France to the Escaut in Belgium.
Here the prerequisites to reinjecting life into the disused waterway are restored navigability, improved banks and a return to water quality conforming to European standards.

A waterway less than 30 km long but steeped in character, straddling the borders between Nord - Pas de Calais, Wallonia and Flanders, is about to rise from the ashes.
Abandoned 15 years ago over the greater part of its length, the historic canal from the Deûle to the Escaut is made up of three distinct sections: the canalised river Marque from the Deûle down-stream of Lille to Wasquehal (7.6 km and 2 locks), the Roubaix Canal proper from the Marque to the Belgian border (12.4 km and 10 locks), and the Canal de l'Espierres between the border and the Escaut upstream of Tournai (8 km and 3 locks).
The managers of this waterway are VNF in Nord - Pas de Calais and the MET in Belgium, but other regional authorities responsible for water supply and drainage are also heavily involved in the project. It is they who are developing the waste water treatment facilities that are indispensable to ensure a return to adequate water quality standards. The Espierres, a stream which drains the north-est part of the Lille conurbation, flows along the canal to the Escaut. Under the pressure of urban expansion, it has become an open sewer. The new treatment plant at Grimonpont should solve this problem by 2002, while the Walloons are building two vast flood retention basins, which will prevent the Espierres from flooding into the canal. These will be permanently in water, making them valuable from the ecological standpoint, but with sufficient capacity to absorb floods. The habitat will be favourable for many bird species in particular. At the other end, the canalised river Marque is still operated over a distance of a few kilometres, serv-ing an important yeast factory in Marcq-en-BarÏul (5 barges per week). Elsewhere, it is heavily silted, as are most of the canal sections. The volume of contaminated sediments to be dredged is evaluated at 220 000 m3. A disposal site confin-ed in bunds will have to be approved by environmental agencies, to accommodate the sludge.
To actually operate the restored locks, more water will be required. Hence VNF's project to increase capacity at the Roubaix Canal pumping station beside the Vauban citadel in Lille, or build a new one, or even to recycle water by back-pumping at the locks.
This is clearly a multi-purpose project, setting an example of the multi-disciplinary approach which should underpin the decisions made on investments and operation modes of any living waterway. The overall investment amounts to 30m euros (excluding the works for sewerage and waste water treatment), 80% of which concerns the canal in France et 20% the section in Belgium.