On World Water Day, Natuurpunt and Google presented their collaboration on the reclamation of the Sint-Onolfspolder nature reserve in Dendermonde more specifically in the Meirdam area. For four years, efforts will be made to connect existing parcels of land to create a continuous wetland. This offers more opportunities to restore wet nature such as raising natural water levels, biodiverse ditches and moist flower-rich grasslands. The Meirdam area is part of the Blue Transition project.
Meirdam, Blue Transition project site
Meirdam is a 65 ha vision area within the Sint-Onolfspolder nature reserve. The area consists of a mix of former sand extraction pits, fish ponds, wet hay meadows and a few diverse woodlands. Since 2008, the area has been zoned 'recreation and nature development' in Dendermonde's spatial implementation plan. Meirdam is barely 1 km from the city, overlooking the towers of the Belfry and the Courthouse. In cooperation with the city of Dendermonde, the province of East Flanders, the ANB (Agency for Nature and Forest), the polder and the regional landscape Schelde-Durme, we want to buffer extra water in the area and allow it to infiltrate. We also want to store CO2 by adjusting the water level management, placing some weirs on the canals and strengthening the blue-green network
Cooperation with Google
To realise (part of) this potential, a cooperation with Google has been entered into (with a budget of €415 000). This will allow 10 ha of new potential wetland to be acquired over a four-year period. Together with the existing parcels (30 ha) already owned by Natuurpunt. To realise this, several weirs will be placed on the canals adjacent to the plots managed by Natuurpunt. This will potentially allow up to 123 million litres of water to be buffered in the area. A pilot project in the Meirdam subarea shows that the placement of one weir has already resulted in a significant increase in the water level in the area.