Desanding almost complete: Dismantling begins next week
Work to restore the bathing bay at Bocholter Aasee will begin in stages over the coming week. A large part of the sediment from the Aa inlet has been removed in recent months, according to the city.
© Stadt Bocholt
Wilhelm Kirchner from the waste disposal and service company shows the sediments that are currently still stored at Lake Aa
At the moment, the Aasee bathing bay still resembles a crater landscape: brown mounds of earth and sediment lie there waiting to be removed. But that will soon change again: Work to restore the bathing bay will begin next week.
Since January, almost 22,000 tonnes of sediment have been removed from the inlet with the help of a suction dredger, i.e. around 1,200 tonnes a day. "The measure was necessary so that the Aasee can continue to fulfil its purpose of flood protection for the city", explains Wilhelm Kirchner from the waste disposal and service company.
The work is on schedule, explains Kirchner. "Removal will begin next week in stages from the lake in the direction of the DLRG", he says. Turf is then to be laid on the meadow in April so that it can be reopened to the people of Bocholt in time for the outdoor pool season.
Flood protection measure
Although the city of Bocholt also expects the reduction of vegetation in the inlet area to improve water quality, it emphasises that this is primarily a flood protection measure. The inlet to the Aasee is only "activated" during floods, so that water from the Bocholter Aa can reach the Aasee. Under normal conditions, there is no connection and the lake remains cut off from the inlet by a weir.