Beneden-Leeuwen Favorite Tips by Roeffie

Floodings

Favorite thing: Ocassionally the river Waal floods its banks and can form a threath to people living behind the dikes.

The water can rise about 4 or 5 meters at that time.

From an already mighty river the Waal almost gets 3 km wide at some places.

The diffence between the land behind the dikes and the water can be sometimes more than 4 or 5 meters.

Standing on the dike you can imagine what it's like. You see the water half a meter or a meter below the top and the houses about a meter or 5 below the top.

If a flooding would occur here, the hight of the water in the villages would reach a level of 2 to 3.5 meters.

It is a constant treath to the people living here, but if you would ask them to move elswhere for their safety most of the people would answer 'no', simply because they are used to it and also love the river.