Public - private collaboration to buffer water against flooding and drought.

The Province of West Flanders manages 3650 km of waterways. These watercourses are rain fed. Consequently, their flowrates can rise rapidly (flooding). On the other hand, watercourses can run dry after a short dry period (water shortage). To tackle these issues, the province creates ‘controlled flooding areas’ in strategic places. These buffer water during flooding and preserve the water to be used during drought.
However, the realisation of such large-scale projects come up against many practical problems. The necessary land needs to be acquired and when digging out the buffer, large quantities of soil must be removed... This soil has to be reprocessed on the fields of farmers. These processes are very costly, but it also takes a lot of time to convince landowners who not always need water themselves.
To deal with this, the Province developed a cooperation project in which a small-scale buffer and storage volume is realised on the farmers' property. In order to efficiently feed the buffer, a restriction is placed in the watercourse raising the water level locally. An inflow pipe is placed towards the buffer. As soon as there is enough water in the watercourse, the supply can thus be replenished.
The province will bear the costs for design, permit application, digging costs and work on the watercourse. The farmer will provide a suitable location and process the removed soil. He becomes the owner of the buffer and is responsible to maintain it for a period of 20 years.