Local residents are worried about a new natural wetlands zone
Plans of the ‘Noorderzijlvest Water Board’ to construct a swamp area in Paterswoldsemeer are causing great concern for local residents, recreational associations, water sports associations and catering and leisure companies. They fear that this will not leave enough swimming and sailing water for their clients, as reported by the Dagblad van het Noorden.
The aim of the Noorderzijlvest Water Board is to construct a 25-hectare wetland zone in the lake by 2027, at least 10 percent of the total water surface. Through this, the water board wants to bring water quality up to the level of the European directives.
The concerns were laid bare during an information evening. It was announced that the realization of three hectares of swamp will start this year coming and next.
Local residents have formed the the ‘Beweging Recreatie Paterswoldsemeer’, and posted a petition last Tuesday. It had already been signed by more than 700 people by that evening. The petitioners are calling on the water board to take the lake into account as a recreational lake for Groningen and Drenthe. “We are very concerned about the plans that the Water Board is preparing and that could be harmful to the further development of the Paterswoldsemeer as the recreational lake of Groningen and Drenthe”, says the group.
According to the water board, water plants have a positive effect on, among other things, the water temperature and the clarity of the Paterswoldsemeer.
“It is not possible to dismiss the plans because the ecological quality of the lake, partly due to climate change, will deteriorate,” said an earlier presentation on the Water Framework Directive.
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