As the city started heating up, the opening of Brussels' only public open-air swimming pool was much anticipated, however, it has been closed for almost ten days now.
The organisation behind the beloved open-air swimming pool FLOW by the canal in Anderlecht announced the opening on 5 July with enthusiasm and was ready to welcome its first visitors with open arms. However, just two days after people took their first dip, the pool closed again as the water quality had fallen below acceptable levels.
"FLOW remains closed for the time being. That’s all we can say now, and it‘s devastating," the organisers said on their social media page.
While it confirmed that the reason for the decreasing water quality levels may have been detected, it added that this was "all the good news for now," as it will take some time to find and implement a solution, putting a damper on the summer in Brussels.
'Aware hick-ups could occur'
The pool located at the Pierre Marchant Bridge is currently the only publicly accessible open-air pool in the capital. The bathing spot, which first opened to the public in 2021, has since become locals' favourite spot to cool down in the summer months until early September.
This year, the non-profit organisation put in place a new infrastructure – a biological water treatment – meaning the water is treated with biological filters, where plants and microorganisms guarantee good water quality rather than chemicals such as chlorine.
From the start, this new filtering system caused problems, resulting in poor below-par water quality. "We were aware of the possibility that hick-ups could occur when a new infrastructure is put into operation for the first time," the organisation said.
Credit: POOL IS COOL
New tests carried out last week showed the quality is better, but it is still not good enough for the pool to open.
"We were informed by the lab that the results of the last test on Friday were much better than before, with a value that was approximately halved. Unfortunately, this one value is still higher than the limits, so we cannot open FLOW to the public yet," the organisation noted on Monday 10 July.
At the time, it was optimistic that the pool would be able to reopen this week, however, on Friday, it was confirmed that the pool would remain closed.
Last year, FLOW was also closed on the second day because of a malfunctioning pump of the classical chemical water treatment system, but the pump was immediately replaced the day after, resulting in the reopening op the pool.
"This time however, with the involvement of biological processes, a prediction of the progress is more difficult. This is a challenge that often comes with ecological approaches," the organisation explained.
In the meantime, this means there are no alternatives for Brussels residents to go swimming in their own city. When the pool will be able to reopen is not clear.
