Zuunvijvers Volsem

Due to the damming of the Zuun, ponds have been created in numerous places along the Zuun. This is also the case here just north of the village centre of Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. And that is necessary to keep the flow of the Zuun under control during heavy rainfall. I figured out for you what you can expect in a heavy downpour. In the spring of 2016, a pluviometer in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw measured a precipitation of 110 litres per m² in the period from 27 May to 8 June. At that time, the maximum precipitation per hour was 34 litres per m². Something that theoretically only happens once every 44 years. The drainage basin of the Zuun is about 80 000 000 m². So then 5,236 Dilkommen (swimming pools) have to be buffered in 1 hour, if that would be so intensive everywhere in that basin. That is to say, every second and a half, a Dilkom fell into that basin in rainwater, for an hour! In other words, you have to be able to buffer or drain a Dilkom every 1.5 seconds...

The Volsembroek dike has a capacity of no less than 204,000 m³, which is about 204 million litres of water. That's more than 400 Dilkommen. But if you know that in that heavy rainstorm of 2016 you have to buffer 5,236 Dilkommen in 1 hour, then you know that you have to do even more to keep everything under control. And that's what they do!

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