Noorderzijlvest invests over €60 million a year

Implementation Review

The trend of rising investments will continue for some time. After 2027, the volume of investment will decline slightly. At the start of this administrative term, an average of approximately €50 million per year was still anticipated.
To gain a clear understanding of the long-term outlook, a feasibility assessment was conducted. The ambitions outlined in the coalition agreement were evaluated for feasibility in terms of time, money, and capacity. Conclusion: not everything fits. More is needed to realise the set ambitions and goals. 

The executive committee therefore proposes to manage the growing and changing workload of the water authority . The executive board wants to plan realistically in terms of time, money, and capacity. For this reason, some plans are being postponed to later years, financial resources for certain areas are being limited, and a number of investments are being scrapped. This will result in savings totaling €21 million in one-time investments over the period up to 2027. 

More and evolving water-management work

The work involved in the core tasks of surface water management is changing, becoming more comprehensive, and taking on greater social significance. As a result, the work will also become more costly. Through the Implementation Program, the Executive Board is looking further ahead than the duration of its own term of office. In doing so, the Board intends to set aside funds prudently. While these developments are inevitable, they cannot yet be quantified in terms of specific financial contributions:

• The changing climate calls for more space for water: in the soil, in land use, in the water level management system for main watercourses, in temporary balancing lakes emergencies, and in increased pumping capacity to handle ever-greater amounts of precipitation during increasingly frequent wet periods. Ensuring the discharge of excess water to the sea during prolonged wet periods has been a top priority since the presentation of the latest climate scenarios.
  In addition to managing excess water, measures are also needed to better retain water during dry periods.
• To safeguard public health, our wastewater treatment plants must meet increasingly stringent requirements to treat more micropollutants and pharmaceutical residues from our wastewater. These facilities have been in operation for years and are due for maintenance and upgrades. That time has now come. The same applies to pressure pipes that carry wastewater to the treatment plants. 
• The water authority and intends to comply with European agreements on improving surface water quality. This means that numerous measures are being planned and implemented in, near, and along watercourses (eventually) at our treatment plants.
• Reinforcing dykes helps ensure that we can continue to live safely alongside the water for decades to come, even as sea levels rise. Nevertheless, we must already begin considering other forms of coastal protection for the distant future. Noorderzijlvest plays a key role in this effort by managing 70 kilometre ofsea dyke the Wadden Sea coast.
• The water authority to national and international climate goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, generating its own energy, and reusing raw materials. When it comes to such innovations, the water authority follow closely rather than lead the way.
• Growing urban areas require new investments throughout the water cycle.

Options for freeing up funds in the budget

The board is freeing up funds by removing €21 million in planned investments and provisions that are still too uncertain from the plan through 2027. In many cases, these plans will be postponed to subsequent years. This includes the construction of several additional fish passages, work on the Dorkwerdersluis, and future investments for the growing Westrand area of Groningen. Along regional flood defences dykes flood embankments the hinterland), work is needed over kilometre . The water authority can water authority carry out this work after 2027.

Rising costs

As previously announced, increased investments will lead to rising costs for households and businesses. Given this investment volume, rate increases for homeowners are projected to average approximately 11% for 2025 and 2026. Starting in 2027, the water authority anticipates water authority average increase of 6%. However, this is subject to change: uncertainties in geopolitics, the market, and price and wage trends could alter this outlook.

Board of Directors a decision

The proposals are outlined in the Implementation Program “The Value of Water”. The Board of Directors a decision on them on March 27.