Dinant, in Belgium, has suffered severe flooding.
Dinant, in Belgium, has suffered severe flooding.
Dinant, in Belgium, has suffered severe flooding.
Dinant, in Belgium, has suffered severe flooding.

Belgium suffers worst floods in decades


Nicky Harley
  • English
  • Arabic

A two-hour thunderstorm in Belgium has caused the country’s worst flooding in decades.

Streets in Dinant buckled under into torrents that washed away cars and pavements.

“I have been living in Dinant for 57 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Richard Fournaux, a former mayor of the town.

Rainwater gushing down steep streets swept away dozens of cars, piling them in a heap at a crossing, and washed away cobblestones, pavements and whole sections of Tarmac.

There was no precise estimate of the damage, with town authorities predicting only that it would be “significant”, reported the Belgian broadcaster RTL TV.

The southern town was spared the deadly floods 10 days ago that killed 37 people in south-east Belgium and many more in Germany.

A badly damaged street after heavy rainfall in Dinant, south-west Belgium.
A badly damaged street after heavy rainfall in Dinant, south-west Belgium.

Last week the Cabinet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel approved an emergency aid package for flood-stricken regions of Germany.

She said billions of euros would be needed to rebuild homes, businesses and vital infrastructure.

A total of 132 people were confirmed to have died in the flooding in Rhineland-Palatinate state and about 150 are missing.

At least 48 deaths were reported in North Rhine-Westphalia and one in Bavaria.

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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

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Updated: July 25, 2021, 4:34 PM`