Annen treatment plant is a new treatment plant of the WMD in the Hunzedal (valley of the river Hunze), just next to the Hondsrug. In Annen groundwater is used for the production of drinking water. This groundwater must be abstracted from the cycle in the correct manner, without strongly affecting the countryside. Without destroying the habitat of groundwater depending plants, or without drying up streams.
200-year old
In an area such as the Hondsrug and the Hunzedal you can make use of the natural mechanism of rain on the high sandy ground of the Hondsrug. This water sinks into the ground and flows to the low-lying Hunzedal and returns to the surface as 200-year old groundwater. For centuries the water has found its way from high to low via this process.
Fully cultivated
The Hunzedal consisted of rough country and marshes. An area in which the mechanism of the water cycle had the upper hand. For approximately the last 50 years the Hunzedal has been fully cultivated. Eventually it became an area that was optimally developed for agriculture with a straightened stream. The valuable ground water was pumped away to the Wadden Sea.
Good groundwater
While looking for new sources for the WMD it soon became apparent that in this area there was enough good groundwater available for abstraction. So much water was being drained away to the sea through the river Hunze, no less than 100 million m3 a year, that 8.5 million m3 of this could be used for the provision of drinking water. The area was developed in two stages.
Two stages
Firstly a more general groundwater production field in the area of the Bulten with a surface area of 60 ha (4.9 million m3 a year) and in the second instance abstraction that was entirely geared to the countryside, in the area of Breevenen van approx. 250 ha (3.5 million m3 a year). The condition must be met that enough groundwater is available for the countryside at the right moment. This is done now by abstracting the water that is needed for drinking water, in the spring and summer chiefly in De Bulten and the eastern part of Breevenen and in the winter in De Bulten and in the western part of Breevenen.
World Wildlife Fund
This project has been selected as one of the pilot projects of the National Landscapes and the World Wildlife Fund’s campaign “Veters Los”. An agricultural area of approx. 300 ha (60 ha at De Bulten and 250 ha at Breevenen) has been remodelled into a potential area of natural beauty, drainages have been removed, ditches filled in and gullies dug.
