The local water board “Hunze en Aa’s works together with municipalities, provinces, leisure sector and nature conservation organizations as partners to achieve our common goal of a lively, attractive and climate resilient lake “Zuidlaardermeer.” The project is both aimed on EU environmental objectives like Natura 2000 and Water Framework Directive (WFD) as on a sustainable recreative use of the lake.

Today the water quality does not meet the objectives and standards. There is a need to reduce the nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the lake water and the sediment i.e. to prevent blooms of blue green algae. Also the fish stocks and biotopes for aquatic plants do not meet the standards.

An important aim of the project is the development and usage of innovative measures that help reducing the concentration of phosphorus. These innovative measures are, among others: The improvement of existing reed vegetation and the development of new wetlands with reed.

Development of islands in shallow parts create a lee for developing biotopes for aquatic plants instead of algae. The new wetlands contribute to climate adaptation and innovations in water management by enlarging our water catchments areas.

We believe that the implementation of this project and exchanging good practice and knowledge with our (international) partners contributes to a sustainable North Sea Region.

The central aim of this project is to increase our knowledge about bringing back the amount of nutriants in fresh water. Therefore we wish to implement several innovative measures that should contribute to this goal.

Improving the waterquality in the lake should give a boost to biodiversity, recreational usage and to local economy.

Possible ways of reducing the amount of nutriants in the water:

• Development of new wetlands with reed vegetation
• Improvement of existing reed vegetation
• Development of island to create biotops for aquatic plants instead of algea
• Other promising measures that are being implemented by international partners

We are looking for partners that are working on water quality as well.

The Regional Water Authority is also interested in projects that relate to the following themes:

• Watermanagement, flooding and drought
• Innovative ways of measuring the strength of dikes
• Biodiversity in and around fresh water
• The usage of waste water to produce bio energy
• Peat decomposition as a result of drainage