Bavaria brewery returns 75% more clean residual water to soil to combat drought

 

02-19-2021

·         By 2020, over 700,000 m3 of treated residual water will have been returned to the soil for use by agriculture, compared with 400,000 m3 in 2019
·         With the Boer Bier Water project, Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Waterways and Public Works), the municipality of Laarbeek, the water board, farmers and the Bavaria brewery ensure healthy groundwater and good soil quality.
·         Cooperation between local partners creates a solution in the region to rising drought

Today, Swinkels Family Brewers presents impressive results of the Boer Bier Water project. By 2020, the family business will have returned over 700,000m3 of purified residual water to the soil via the Bavaria brewery in Lieshout. That is an increase of 75% compared to 2019. The Boer Bier Water project is a success story for a common problem in the Netherlands: the drought that has plagued the country in recent years. According to the brewery, the large increase in the use of clean residual water is due to a growing group of farmers participating in the project. Last year, no fewer than 12 farmers joined in. In 2021, Swinkels Family Brewers will continue to invest in the project, among others by realising a new inlet in the Wilhelminakanaal. This is expected to return 800,000 m3 of water to the soil this year.

Drought problems are becoming more urgent
The project, which started in 2014, connects the municipality of Laarbeek, Water Boards Aa and Maas and de Dommel, ZLTO, Rijkswaterstaat, the province of North Brabant and Rabobank to Swinkels Family Brewers for a common need: replenishment of groundwater and good soil quality. Boer Bier Water filters Bavaria's residual water, water that is used to, for example, clean the brewing boilers and returnable bottles, in its own residual water treatment system. This filtered residual water is redistributed via sub-irrigation (water supply through level-controlled drainage) to farmers in the vicinity of the Bavaria brewery. This way, they can regulate the groundwater level on their farmland and grow their crops better.

Healthy soil for agriculture
Besides the groundwater, the Boer Bier Water project also focuses on the cultivation of malting barley. The farmers are also working on reducing the use of crop protection agents and increasing the organic matter content of the soil, for example by adding compost.

Marthijn Junggeburth, sustainability manager at Swinkels Family Brewers: “As a family business in Brabant, we feel it is important to pass on the spring water we are currently brewing to future generations and we want to do something for the region in which we operate. By pumping the residual water, which would otherwise have run into the sea, back into canals and streams that function as a transport system, we can give this water back to farmers in the area in a sustainable manner. The great results achieved together with all partners over the past year set the tone for what we can expect in the future - we are aiming for a total of 800,000 m3 of water to be returned to the soil by 2021. We are very proud of the Boer Bier Water project and its high-quality reuse that contributes to the objectives of our Swinkels Circularity Index. The increase in clean residual water shows that a sustainable closure of the water cycle is possible.”

Godelieve van Tilborg, ZLTO advocate: “In recent years, farmers have had to deal with drier summers, which have made it more difficult for them to grow their crops. The Boer Bier Water project is a successful way to support farmers in the region. Even in persistent times of drought, farmers can regulate the groundwater level through sub-irrigation. This way, there is enough water available for the crops to grow throughout the summer. I am very impressed with the joint achievement of the past year, in which the cooperation between the affiliated parties has been essential. The sharing of knowledge between (local) companies, farmers and governments ensures that we come closer to our goal of keeping water available for the long term, in a sustainable way.”