Franco-Belgian canal reopens after 32 years

The Pommeroeul-Condé canal along the border between France and Belgium in Hainaut has reopened after first closing in 1992.

Silting prompted the closure 32 years ago, but works that began in 2016 have enabled it to be rehabilitated.

“We're quite happy to be able to see [boats] here and let them through – it brings a bit of life back to this canal, which had been abandoned, so to speak,” one canalgoer told RTBF.

"I've been passing the lock regularly for five years now, and we no longer believed it would be reopened."

The rehabilitation entailed removing one million cubic metres of sediment. Works were finished at the end of 2023, but heavy rainfall in the early months of this year delayed the grand reopening until late July.

The canal is open to merchant shipping and pleasure boats of up to 3,000 tonnes over a distance of 11 kilometres.

Regular checks and technical monitoring of changes in navigation conditions will take place during a test phase, after which analyses will determine if the measures put in place to reduce silting and maintain good navigation conditions are sufficient.

Depending on the results, a temporary closure of the canal could be considered again, to facilitate the implementation of certain adaptations.

Some are already worried about the results of the test phase, noting silt once again piling up.

“The height of water available for boats to pass through is already reducing day by day,” said Stefano Panarisi, a district manager for Wallonia’s public service department.