Greening the city by cleaning the Canal? The vision and mission of Canal it Up

In this blog we investigate the vision and mission of the Brussels organisation Canal it Up. We read into the organisation, reached out to go kayaking and to have an interview (which will both take place later in May), and also went deeper into the subject by doing two field trips: one to the Canal itself and one to the sewer museum.

The brussels canal is infamous among its inhabitants. The waterway running through the city can be described as lifeless, polluted, and dirty. This however is not a surprise given its history. Since the construction of the canal in the 15th century, it only had an economic purpose. When during the seventies the deindustrialization process also took hold in Brussels, its canal zone was subjected to neglect and abandonment. Today, we can witness a renewed interest in the canal zone from the government, developers, and certain groups of citizens. Governmental projects like The Canal Plan portray the canal zone as a place for urban integrated economic activity, housing, public space… As such, the Canal zone experiences increasing gentrification pressures. However, the canal itself stays lifeless, polluted, and dirty.

One day a group of young people were sitting beside the canal, when they saw a pile of garbage flowing by. They decided to buy a kayak to clean the water themselves, and soon they were organising kayak trips for others to clean the canal and create awareness of the problem. Today the organisation grew out to a respected organisation that aims to solve three mayor's issues in the canal: floating garbage, too little biodiversity, and bad water quality. It does this through awareness activities, research, and proactively engaging with relevant actors like the Port Of Brussels and coming up with solutions. Canal it up sees the canal as a place where nature can be introduced into the city, the canal as a place for biodiversity and enjoyment of its aesthetics.

The first problem Canal It Up addresses is the garbage in the water. It is the most visible problem which origins are diverse. We went to look if we ourselves could indeed spot much garbage in the water, and that didn’t seem a problem at all, as much and different garbage was floating about. Canal it Up has thought up two solutions, the most ambitious being the implementation of a country-wide implementation of a deposit on cans. That would, according to Canal it Up, decrease the litter by 40% in the whole of Belgium. With 15.000 signatures they can propose this new law to the federal parliament. A second solution is a more practical barrier in the canal, which would block and remove litter from the water. At this moment the port authority is looking into the feasibility of this solution.

Plastic bottles, cans, footballs and bags floating around in the Canal. Own pictures (2022).

The organisation identifies a second problem, namely the lack of biodiversity in the canal. When walking past it, you can indeed see that the canal certainly does not look like a healthy river, and there is not much life going on in and around it. It is very obvious this is a man-made canal made for more practical reasons. Canal it Up wants this to change and as a solution, soon 210 m² of vegetated islands will make the canal more “green”. If this is a success, next year 400 m² more will be added. The purpose is to filter the water and create a habitat for plants, fish, birds & insects. Furthermore, if the surface is big enough, the plants could help counter for instance the heat effect of the city.

A simulation of the vegetated islands. Canal it Up (2021).

The third problem, according to Canal it Up, is the bad quality of the water. This has amongst others to do with the fact that sewer overflows go directly into the Canal or the Zenne. Canal it Up has done research regarding the water quality, and it didn’t look that good. For a solution to this problem, severe works have to be carried out in the sewage system. Currently Canal it Up is creating awareness with an open letter to the Minister of the Environment to take this problem seriously, as well as with a more accessible video to explain the problem.

We went to the Sewer Museum in Brussels to get more knowledge about the functioning of the Brussels sewer system. Whilst visiting the very interesting museum we got many insights into the importance and complexity of the sewer system. Regarding the wateroverfloats, so-called “wateroverlaten” are simple holes at the top of pipelines through which water can escape when it's too high (e.g. with stormy weather). In the museum, it is only mentioned that the sewer overload goes to the Zenne, whilst Canal It Up showed in a video how it also gets loosened in the Canal.

The Zenne underneath the Boulevard du Midi as you can see it in the Sewer Museum, and a small explanation on how the water flows to the Zenne with so-called “wateroverlaten” in the same museum. Own pictures (2022).

By doing these field visits and reaching out to Canal it Up, we found out that the Canal has a lot of potentials that could be exploited much better. As we prepare for an interview with the organisation, questions about the social consequences and how this fits in Brussels (gentrifying?) Kanaalplan remains in place.

By Anton Driesen, Rebecca Wyn Bernage, Igor Vervoort