Druppel 17-2 - Dispuut Watermanagement

VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Sponsor Index
Arcadis Nederland Page 2 and 25
Bam Civiel Page 2
Duinwaterbedrijf Zuid-Holland Page 14
HKV Lijn in water Page 2 and 4
Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland Page 26
Hydrologic BV Page 26
Ingenieursbureau Amsterdam Page 26
Ingenieursbureau BCC Page 26 and 28
ITT Flygt Page 26
KIWA Page 26 and 32
Nederlandse Waterschapsbank Page 26
TNO Page 14
VEWIN Page 21
WL Delft Hydraulics Page 2
bam civi
2

Colofon
From the Editors
Volume 17, Number 2, May / June 2007
The ‘Druppel’ is a magazine of the
student society of water management of
the TU Delft. The magazine is published
four times a year.
Editors
Evelyn Aparicio
Frederik Gevers
Leon Valkenburg
In cooperation with:
Lay-out
Leon Valkenburg
Printing
Thieme Media Services
The ‘Druppel’ is distributed to
all members of the
Dispuut Watermanagement
Faculty of Civil Engineering
and Geosciences
Dear reader,
As producers we are proud to present this
second Druppel in A4 to you. Because of the
amount of events during the past few months
there are quite some dazzling stories about
tripping in Czech and Sächsen, Germany, a
successful boardchange with new enthusiastic
board members and a lot more.
Besides that, it has been busy at the departments
of sanitary engineering, hydrology and
water resources. People contributed in organizing
the symposium, others went to do the
fieldwork in Luxembourg. Fortunately everybody
contributed a piece of their experiences
for this Druppel.
You probably catch our drift; there is a lot to
read in this new Druppel. Please flip the page
and enjoy!
Evelyn and Frederik
room 4.74
Stevingweg 1
2628 CN Delft
Telephone 015-2784284
E-mail
dispuut.watermanagement@ct.tudelft.nl
Internet
www.dispuutwatermanagement.nl
3

Bezoekadres:
Botter 11 nr. 29
Lelystad
Postbus 2120
8203 AC Lelystad
Telefoon: 0320 294242
Telefax: 0320 253901
E-mail: info@hkv.nl
Internet: www.hkv.nl
www.hkv.nl
HKV LIJN IN WATER is een onafhankelijk bureau voor advies
en onderzoek op het gebied van water en waterbeheer.
Wij besteden10-15% van ons budget aan onderzoek en
ontwikkeling. Met deze insteek kunnen wij studenten
volop mogelijkheden bieden voor:
afstudeerprojecten
promotiestudies
grensverleggende onderzoeken
Innovatieve ideeën worden door ons zeer op prijs gesteld.
Wij horen graag van je!

Table of Contents
Company Case
KIWA & HKV Consultants
Page 10
Symposium 2207
Milenium Development Goals
Page 12
Elbe Study Tour
Page 18
Fieldwork Luxembourg
Page 22
Sponsor index 2
From the Editors 3
Table of Contents 5
Board Change 6
Company Case 10
Symposium 12
A Ph.D. as a milestone 15
Worlds first city on the sea 16
Elbe Tour 18
Reaching the finish 20
Luxembourg Field work 22
About the 40th Board 24
Commission of Education 27
Young scientist workshop 30
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
From the Board
Leon Valkenburg
We are having busy times at the Dispuut at the
moment. Within two weeks we have had the
Symposium, the board change and the Elbe
Study Tour, which were all a great success! All
of these events have cost a lot of time, but
because things happened the way we planned,
it was very satisfactory. The Elbe Study Tour is
freshest in memory and I was in the organizing
committee, so I want to share some of my experiences
during this awesome study tour.
An average day in the study tour was very
hectic, especially Monday the 30th of April. In
the morning we woke up a little sleepy. But
because we had to be in the centre of Prague
at 10, we had to hurry our showers, coffee
drinking and our breakfasts. After arriving by
tram, we entered a very empty, but nice office
building on the banks of the Moldau. We finally
discovered our host in the basement of the
building and started to watch a presentation
about the flood protection in Prague. Afterwards
we had a lunch together with our host,
here we found out some cultural differences.
While we were sipping on our espressos and
cappuccinos, he was drinking a modest 0,5 l
pint at 12.00 AM. Then we went on a very
interesting flood protection tour in Prague. The
most bizarre part of the protection was a special
flood door, which is used to close a canal.
To close this door a large part of a restaurant
needs to be demolished.
At 5 PM we arrived back at our hostel, Harry
and I rapidly rushed to the huge local supermarket
to buy food for the coming days. The
amount of drinks, vegetables, bread, etc. 16
person’s need in just a few days is really astonishing.
You can imagine the faces of the
Czech people and the personnel. At around
6.30 we finally arrived at our hostel, we could
finally depart to Germany then. After 1,5 hours
of driving through a beautiful landscape, we
arrived at in the border town of Altenberg. After
some really strange beer rugby, we went
to Schellerhau to get the key of our mansion.
One of our vans went ahead to get the key, so
when we got there I said to Harry I would run
to the other van and pick them up. Then the
misery started…the distance to the other van
was much longer than I expected and the hills
were much steeper. But then I couldn’t find
the other van, not at the location I thought it
would be and not at the previous place they
had waited. Then I found myself 6 km away
from our house. Then I just decided to run
back. Arriving at the house after 30 min I found
myself alone in front of the locked house. The
vans were gone, the group forgot me, it was
7 degrees outside and I was neither wearing a
phone nor a jacket. Happy Queensday!!
Anyway, I went to the keyholder of our house
and she told me the group was gone to a restaurant.
Cheers!! I got in the house, got myself
a beer and some chips and started to watch a
german spoken South Park episode, which I
already had seen. Then I called Harry to say
I was still at the house, he responded: ”Aren’t
6

you at the table with us, I thought you were in
the other van”. Great. “Can you start cooking,
because the restaurant is closed?”. So they
were coming back and I had to cook for them,
after a while I started to cut the paprika’s. A
part of the group arrived at the house and told
me they were at a party celebrating a May
tree festival together with some firefighters.
We then got there, eating bratwurst, drinking
Jaegemeisters and beer and doing polonaises
on very bad german music. There was also
very little distinction between the firemen and
the students. What in heavens name is happening
here? This all took place in the nice
scenery of a dark train station in the centre of
Altenberg. As you can probably imagine this
was all a bit surreal for me. But after some
beers and a disgusting bratwurst I finally
managed to merge with the group again.
So the group forgot me, the chairman, ah
well, whatever! I had a great time during our
awesome tour and I hope the coming Dispuuts
period will be as great as it was during the
Elbe Study Tour.
Adios!!
7

The Board Change
Frederik Gevers Deynoot
People come and people go. First of all I
would like to say ‘Thanks’ to the people who
left the board of the Water Management Dispuut.
Thank you on behalf of all the students
and colleagues of the department.
The 24th of April the board, students, employees
of the department and of course the
three candidates for the new board gathered
for a big homemade lunch at the department.
Prof. Savenije en Prof. van Dijk said some nice
words and some ‘huishoudelijke mededelingen’;
if you are interested in some running
with prof. van Dijk and the TU Delft-team during
a big national sanitary engineering happening,
contact him a.s.a.p.!
After lunch the time was right to start the official
meeting and make the board change take
place. The 40th board explained their policy
of the last year and gave insight of things that
had been done during the year and of other
topics which are still on a roll; exactly what
a meeting is about. Good initiatives were affirmed
with good drinks and good decisions
were hammered in the minutes by former
president Ruud ‘Hammerhead’ van der Ent.
As the new board one of the things we would
like to improve is the contact with sponsors
and companies.
Especially, we think, it is important for students
to know what they will get in to, as soon
as they graduate. For that reason we will stalk
companies for personal experiences and attach
some more company-related pages in
the Druppel. If you have some ideas or problems
that should be dealt with, contact us by
mail or walk by during lunchtime!
Five o’clock was a good time to have drinks
together. Students and employees met up at
the 4th floor to congratulate the new board
and get shit-faced in no-time (just joking..)
We hope to see you soon in our office and
have a ‘bakkie’ together!
Regards,
On behalf of the 41st board,
Frederik Gevers Deynoot
Treasurer
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Company Case
Leon Valkenburg
On the 19th and 20th of February the Dispuut
organized a two-day company case to KIWA
Water Research and HKV Lijn in water. As you
probably know, during a company case students
visit a company for one day. The student
could see how things work within a company
and the company could get to know the
students and introduce itself. The company
presented a case to the students related to a
project they had done recently. Afterwards and
during the day the company staff and students
could interact informally. During dinner and
night time, there was room for more studentlike
activities.
assignment.
The solution for the case was then worked out
by three groups. Hereby the groups had to
cope with a rising drinking water demand, the
necessity of finding new sources and a new
purification method. The winning group presented
a series of purification reservoirs linked
to the Yangtze River in combination with an
improved UV-purification. This solution was
similar to the solution that Kiwa Water Research
together with experts of six Dutch water
companies and TU Delft had developed.
KIWA Water Research
On Monday 19 February, the program started
with a visit to KIWA in Nieuwegein. Rene Eisenga,
member of the management team,
presented Water Kiwa Research as an international
knowledge institute focused on drinking
water, water systems and the small water
cycle.
The assignment of the company case was
working out a master plan for the drinking
water service in Shanghai. At this moment,
the quality of the drinking water in Shanghai
is insufficient. The main source of the drinking
water, the river Huangpu, is highly polluted.
Shanghai wants to show to the world
their economic progress on the World Expo
2010 by presenting the new technology then
and applying this on a large scale in the city
later on. Obtaining drinking water that meets
the European standards is the objective of this
Amsterdam evening
Afterwards a course was set from Nieuwegein
in the direction of Amsterdam. After the tough
company case there had to be time for some
distraction. There was a reservation made in
a pleasant but rather dubious youth hostel at
the picturesque Oudezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam.
When we arrived at the hostel, it was
overbooked, but the owner had booked us in
another hostel for the same price. It was the
really crappy hostel, called “The white tulip”
in the very silent Warmoesstraat. When we
found some stoned French teenagers in our
supposed-to-be room, we definitely had to find
another room. After a 30-minute negotiation
with the Chinese owner we could get one room
for our entire group.
Finally the fun could start, after a lovely dinner
in a local Thais restaurant; we went out to find
a nice spot to chill. In a cafe started a great
10

evening, including much laughter and above
all some nice juffing. I think we can call Harry
the worst juffer of the night, making the same
mistakes every time. Then we went back to
the hostel and had some sleep during a noisy
night (altogether church bells, drunk people on
the streets and snoring of Ruud can be really
disturbing) After an ALDI breakfast round 7.00
AM, everybody took his place in the car or van
in the direction of Lelystad.
HKV Lijn in Water
The case that had been prepared concerned a
problem in the regional water management in
Groningen. As a consequence of the gas winning,
the area north of the city Groningen has
to cope with land subsidence. Recent measurements
showed that the maximum subsidence
as a consequence of gas winning, indeed
remains equal to earlier expectations, but the
slope of the subsidence is bigger than was expected
earlier. Because of this the compensation
measures taken in the past are no longer
sufficient.
The students got the task to think of new supplementary
measures to develop on the basis
of a through their set up criticisms frame.
The two student advice groups developed two
more or less equivalent plans, consisting of applying
two extra pumping stations and the adaptation
of the bosom level in the area. Also in
this case, the plans of the students resembled
the real given advice.
The company cases were seen as a success by
both students and companies. The companies
were impressed by the quality and technical
depth that the students achieved in their solutions.
Moreover, the contact between the students
and the businessmen was very good, especially
during the lunch and the closing drink.
The students themselves have strengthened
their bonds during the Amsterdam adventure.
During a nice reception in the office of HKV in
Lelystad, Hans Hartong, the manager of HKV
and also founder of the Dispuut Water management
in 1980, introduced his company
HKV. HKV sees itself as a research and advisory
company focused on water management,
calamity management and risk analysis with
innovation as one of the most important spear
heads.
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Symposium 2007
Millennium Development Goals: our responsibility?
Jasper Flapper
In September 2000 189 countries agreed upon
eight millennium development Goals (MDG’s)
to be achieved by 2015. Because water is one
of the basic requirements for human life it is
a key element in achieving most of the MDG’s.
Hunger, disease and environmental sustainability
are all problems that depend on the way
water is managed.
During this year’s symposium of the Dispuut
Water management the focus was on target
10: “Reduce by half the proportion of people
without sustainable access to safe drinking
water”. In general the object of this symposium
was to show its participants what is being
done by the Dutch government, companies
and NGO’s to achieve this target and what
students can do to contribute. By organizing
this symposium the committee also aimed to
bring people from different backgrounds together:
students and professionals, engineers,
policymakers and idealists, students from the
TU Delft and UNESCO-IHE.
The support from the staff of the Watermill
program at UNESCO-IHE also aided a great
deal in realizing these objectives.
The chairman, Professor Francois Clemens of
Delft University of Technology, started by introducing
the subject and elaborated on the
influence of drinking water and sanitation on
public health. He concluded his introduction
by pointing out the different kinds of difficulties
that are encountered when trying to improve
drinking water and sanitation: political,
economical, cultural and technical problems,
which of course vary per country.
Next Rolf Luyendijk, consultant to the WHO/
UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP), gave
the participants insight on the progress that
has been made up till now in achieving target
10.
The prospects are grim: most countries will
not meet their sanitation targets by 2015.
Most countries are on their way to achieve the
drinking water target but Africa is not on track.
To break the trend and speed up the progress
more financial investments are necessary. It is
also important to focus on the people that do
not have any water at all instead of upgrading
existing water facilities for the rich.
Several measures can be taken: shattering
the myth about difficulties and high costs for
drinking water supply and sanitation, including
the private sector, increasing accountability
and profitability and increasing the scale of
projects.
Dick van Ginhoven, from the Dutch ministry of
foreign affairs, started his presentation with
a very amusing quiz about the importance of
clean drinking water and sustainable sanitation.
Of course everybody participated.
12

After the quiz mister Van Ginhoven focused on
the importance of sustainable access to drinking
water and sanitation in relation too many
aspects of human life: health, income, time
spend on domestic tasks and child mortality to
name but a few.
The Dutch government set out to provide 50
million people with sustainable access to safe
drinking water and improved sanitation by the
year 2015. The most important guidelines embraced
by the government to meet this goal
are: focus on the poor, result based programming;
demand based distributive approach,
sustainability, monitoring and reporting. The
ministry of foreign affairs contributes through
a whole range of programmes: multi-lateral,
bi-lateral, public private partnerships and
through aiding NGO’s.
Miss Isabella Lulani, one day from her master
graduation from UNESCO-IHE, continued on
the subject of public health risks of the urban
water system in Accra by microbial risk assessment.
The research done by Miss Lulani shows
that because of the bad state the sanitation
system are in, it is more of a threat to public
health then a blessing. Subsequently Miss
Lulani suggested several measures that could
help the city of Accra improve the sanitary
situation: improve maintenance, upgrade existing
treatment plant, upgrade, maintenance
and provision of pit latrines, focussing on lowincome
areas, proper disposal of solid waste,
improvement of environmental law, and creation
of a water safety plan.
Hielke Wolters, consultant at Vitens-Evides international,
started by pointing out the difficulties
for the private sector to operate in third
world countries because of the risks: devaluation
of currency, governance, and affordability.
Vitens-Evides International is a company created
by Evides and Vitens but operates as a
separate unit. Vitens-Evides International is
active in third world countries for the following
reasons: corporate social responsibility, sharing
of knowledge and expertise, contributing
to the MDG’s and providing challenges and opportunities
for its staff. Yearly 2 million euros
is donated by the customers of the two drinking
water companies in support of the work
Vitens-Evides International does abroad.
Vitens-Evides International uses these funds
to work on the operational performance of
the urban water supply without profit targets.
Vitens-Evides International aims for more
public-private partnerships and sending their
employees abroad for short periods of time to
exchange experiences.
Fred de Bruijn, from Witteveen+Bos, stated
that a more centralised approach in donordominated
countries is preferred: when a lot
of foreign organisations try to solve the same
problems a lack of coordination results in very
low effectiveness in actually aiding the receiving
country. Witteveen+Bos believes privatisation
can contribute to the MDG’s if done effectively.
Though the focus of W+B, providing
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
added value to clients, doesn’t seem to coincide
with the MDG’s at first glance Fred de Bruijn
believes entrepreneurship will favour sustainability
as a matter of sound business and
thus contribute indirectly to the MDG’s. Finally,
Fred the Bruijn pointed out that one should not
distinguish between urban and rural but rather
rich and poor. Problems in urban areas are often
more urgent then those in rural areas.
Rolien Sasse, director of NGO Simavi, called
attention to the importance of clean drinking
water and adequate sanitation as an absolute
must for good hygiene and prevention of diseases.
Through creating awareness, empowerment
and local participation Simavi tries to give
people a voice and the means to change their
situation for the better. NGO’s are limited in
their scale, political influence and budget. To
confront these shortcomings partnerships and
cooperation with other organisations and institutions
is necessary.
If you are looking for a way to contribute to
the MDG’s the speakers suggested the following:
• Support NGO’s, collect money, do voluntary
work;
• Influence government policies and investments;
• Select a MDG subject for your thesis;
• Seek an international internship;
• Focus on appropriate technology;
• Work on your soft skills;
• Understand the development context;
• Social aspects of development;
• Working in partnership;
• Broaden your horizon: water and sanitation
is a multi-disciplinary field;
• Hielke Wolters advises: “One of the best advices
I got from my professor when doing my
thesis at TU Delft, was to learn my languages:
“You’ll always be able to check your technical
knowledge in text books, but nobody will ever
take away your dominance of any foreign language!””;
• Keep a close watch on the trends in the water
sector.
To reach the MDG’s it is important to exchange
and learn, to understand, respect and use different
roles and fields of expertise. Because
water is related to too so many people and so
many disciplines coordination and cooperation
is a must. This in the only possible when there
is real commitment, a common goal and an
open mind.
14

A Ph.D. as a milestone in a planned career?
Jan Vreeburg
On June 25 of 2007 I hope to defend my thesis
on discoloration in drinking water system and
receive a PhD for that. For me that would then
be a milestone in my career up till now but
that I actually did not plan for. How to plan
for a career anyway. Let’s take a seat on the
milestone and have a look back to see how
to arrive at such a point. In 1979 I started
my study at the department of Civil Engineering
with the goal to graduate in sanitary engineering.
That made me a bit of an exception
compared to my fellow students because
I had a clear goal with the study. During the
introduction days, I visited as a high school
student, I saw this drinking water thing and it
appealed to me immediately. Nevertheless it
took me seven-and-a-half year to eventually
graduate. It took so long as I suffered from
the motivation dip half way as many students
do, but recovered timely enough to end within
reasonable limits. My first job was at a water
company at the department of distribution
and that first job was decisive for the rest of
my career. So much for the planning, because
one of the reasons to accept the job was that
it was conveniently nearby where I lived.
to do so and evenly unplanned. Although there
was some reasoning or maybe even planning
behind the application with Kiwa: I would have
a great overview on the complete landscape of
drinking water companies in the Netherlands
and based on that I assumed I could pick the
drinking water company I would go to work and
have a grand career. 18 years later I still work
with Kiwa. Not only because I could not decide
on what company would fit me best, but also
because Kiwa turned out to be so much fun.
I started with Kiwa on software development for
a network calculation program (yes: the ALEID
program I still use to annoy students) but one
of the first large projects I got involved in was
a research on the cause and nature of discoloration
in drinking water distribution systems.
At that time this was an under-researched area
of the drinking water supply and that offered
large opportunities to explore new possibilities.
It turned out to be a field with many opportunities
to actually improve operational actions.
That was what we concentrated on: challenge
the traditional network operation and see why
it was not successful. Nowadays one can see
that water companies design and construct
other networks than they traditionally used to
do at the beginning of the research. This new
approach really got to the water companies!
It triggered both Hans van Dijk and myself to
finally write up this new approach, teach it to
students and expand on the scientific part of
the mostly practical research. Finally, that is
the real rewarding part of this milestone: to
see that what you have done actually added
something to the real world and changed the
approach towards the distribution network.
After two-and-a-half years some guy from
Kiwa asked me to apply for a job there and
again looking back this was a decisive decision
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Elbe study tour
Evelyn Aparicio
All the effort we made for our Study strip worth
it, we spent a splendid week traveling around
the Elbe, the cities we visited and the projects
we saw were very much interesting. Not to
mention the company, we had a great group
of fourteen enthusiastic students and two animated
supervisors to such an extent that if not
wearing their formal suits you could not tell
who was responsible for the whole group.
Having this kind of trips has several advantages,
allows students and staff to view different
approaches to engineering problems, and
what seems logical and obvious for some may
be different for others. The details of our every
day activities will be presented in our final report
by the end of May.
eyes we could appreciate the flood protection
structures constructed at the river banks and
walked through the different stages for flood
protection, we had the best guide possible,
the designer of the measures himself, despite
a little communication difficulties we learned
and enjoyed the entire day walking along the
different stages of the protection system, finalizing
the day with a visit to the Rokytka
pumping station. That day was the Queen’s
day and I am convinced that no one can complain
for not celebrating the day in the name
of the Queen with a sausage and a dance at
the style and company of the fire brigade in
Altenberg.
We started on Saturday the 28th of April waiting
at Delft station for the vans to arrive so
we could start our travel, without noticing we
were already sitting in the cars driving towards
Prague listening to the discs that were compiled
especially for this trip.
We spent two days in Prague, during the
first day we mainly did a tourist tour walking
through the city, crossing the Charles Bridge,
walking up to see the Prague Castle and getting
the feeling of being in a beautiful city considered
a jewel in Europe.
Since Tuesday the 2nd of May was a holiday
we devote our day hiking in the Sachsische
Scheweiz area, we enjoyed a scenario full of
colors with different tones of green and specially
a bright yellow that together with the
gray of the stones made a stunning artistic
view.
Next day, after a presentation of the flood
protection measures taken in Prague, we almost
did the same path but now with engineer
18

Even though we started the organization with
our contacts eight months ago almost at the
same time, it was possible to see some differences
as we were moving towards the west,
for instance in Prague we had our presentation
in the basement of the building and the last
day at Chemmitz we were received in a nice
office with some cookies and coffee over the
table. However I would not dare to say that
some care less than the others, but just that
people have different ways of doing things in
a “formal” way.
During the coming two days we visited some
projects near Dresden, on Wednesday we
visited the Altenberg treatment plant, although
small it has all the necessary to be a
complete laboratory, later we visit the Klimgerberg
reservoir and saw the new works
that are being constructed including a new
reservoir and a tunnel with a length of 3
km that will connect the old and new reservoirs,
the main functions of the reservoir
are water supply and flood protection.
On Thursday we could visit in Dresden the
Water Research Centre TZW and a utility
company at Chemmitz where we got an
insight of how water supply is being managed
in a former socialistic area that has
improved considerable during the past 15
years, and for the surprise of some of us has
a decreasing population during the coming
years. Our last visit was to a place that once
was a concrete jungle full of tall buildings
next to each other that has become a suburb
area where some buildings still stand
after restoration and improvement.
Late in the afternoon we encountered ourselves
enjoying another beautiful city, Dresden
that since the earliest 90’s has been
reconstructed from the bombarding that
suffered during the Second World War.
Renting the vans indeed made a difference, we
were “free”, in a certain way and also it made
possible to stay in our house at the Schellerhau
area were we could decide the time for waking
up, going to bed, the menu and of course the
possibility of preparing barbecues in our back
yard. The area itself was an invitation for walking
around or just looking outside the window
was enough to have some peaceful moments.
We have developed a very nice bind among
the people; definitely spending many days together
may create nice ties, or even better can
create friends.
In general we spent a week with many visual
and emotional impressions, unforgettable……….
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VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Reaching the finish, a matter of (water) management
Prof. dr.ir.T.N.Olsthoorn
No breath of wind and rarely any shade: trees
still barely have leaves. Are these long Rotterdam
roads dull! Already after 17 km, have to
walk couple of hundred meters. My legs simply
don’t want any further. Always on the look for
the 5 km archways, and the drinking post 200
m thereafter. But even those 200 m feel like
another kilometer. In this heat, these drinking
posts can hardly deal with the onrushing
thirsty runners. Instead of one cup of water,
everyone takes three or four; some just to
throw over the head as a cooling measure.
Reaching the finish line, is not always a “matter
of course”, and even less often it is a sparkling
final sprint that one is used to of the winners
in major races. This is likewise applicable when
things seem to go against you during your
M.Sc. writing. If for shorter or longer, you just
don’t see your way out, then sometimes, it may
be a matter of slowing down and changing to
a low gear, to small steps and well maintained
steadiness (and water management), by which
will finally carry yourself across the finish line.
Sunday, April 15, the Rotterdam Marathon. It
became a special experience. 27 Celsius in the
shade, definitely hotter than usual, and never
experienced this before. Just another sign of
climate change? Expected many a sweat droplet,
but strangely enough, I don’t remember
anything of that, rather a sense of continuous
dryness. This kind of detail seems to have faded
away already after one week when writing
this article. At the medical post, km 12, asked
for a plaster against mutual chafing of two
toes. Never wear new socks in a race! There
was still sand in the shoe from a dune walk
one week earlier. Had to hurry leaving the redcross
bus as nearby a runner had to sit down
at road side, having become dizzy. The scouring
toe gradually ached less; further forgotten.
At two occasions, another runner had to stop
along the road side; one man heavily groaning
with ambulance personnel bent over him.
The newly designed foam cover of the Rotterdam
drinking water company Evides, which
should allow drinking while running, just went
down in the hectic. Felt a bit dizzy; do I now
get goose flesh? I had been warned for this.
Just slow down. One km walk before the second
passage of the Erasmusbrug, this does
well! On the bridge, km 27, the Coolsingel in
sight, I have given up. Feeling totally in peace
with it, I will just nail up my number 11527
in my room with a felt-tip pen cross through
it. Reached the foot of the bridge at calm
steady tripping step. Why not just continue at
this pace? I should be able to keep going this
way for the remaining 14 km! It may be slow,
but there is still time enough as 5:30h are allowed
anyhow. Just look at the horizon and
keep going, steady but stably, such that the
internal temperature will not rise further. This
proves still heavy. Living from km to km. These
kilometers now seem very long, especially if
you miss one of the signs. The 30 km drinking
post can’t manage the demand at all: no
more cups left just a hose; picked up a reasonably
clean one from the street and kept it
under the water hose. Took a complete shower
myself. Two cups of water plus half of Extran
sports drink are just heavy on the stomach.
This hurts when running, implying a first hundred
m walk. Then it’s ok. Can’t stand the blue
Extran anymore, but don’t dare to skip it. No
matter how much water, the thirst remains.
20

Now particularly hungry, but nowhere a piece
of banana. In the Kralingse Bos, I hear people
saying that the Marathon has been cancelled.
Asking why, it proves that the health
assistance can no longer manage the number
of overheated participants. The broad asphalt
road through the forest is long and dull. At
least there is some shade. Still 600 m until
the petrol station, then the corner towards
the long Boszoom will be in sight, with the
35 km line 1 km thereafter. Most runners
now walk, partly upon strong advice from the
race assistants. Steadily dribbling on seems
a better idea to me, as walking the last 7
km is just too far, and will cause stiff limbs.
A hundred m walk once in a while proved
nevertheless unavoidable. Gratefully accepted
a piece of egg-cake. Not a good idea after
all, as it sucks all moist from my mouth.
Now and then a resident with a garden hose:
letting me spout wet front and back completely
proves a magic potion. From then
on, never skipped a single garden hose: a
full shower every 500 m or so. The police
advices taking the underground back to the
Coolsingel and urging to go walking for one’s
own well being; “there wouldn’t be any water
left at the 40 km drinking post, and in town it
would even be 5 degrees hotter”. Dribbling on
with a shower at every opportunity still seemed
preferable to me. There was a provisional extra
drinking post put on at km 41, allowing a
last tanking: no overconfidence or unnecessary
risk now. Finally passed the finish; 4:41h, almost
one hour more than last time (a shame?)
Now happily wearing the medal I could shake
mayor Opstelten’s hand. Extremely grateful for
that banana, thinking of the public support at
so many points along the road, I walked completely
satisfied to the changing tent. It was
water a matter of water management after
all, plus some endurance at a reduced pace
that proved maintainable. To-morrow with the
students to TNO, this promises to become
a relaxed but interesting day for everyone.
21

VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
Fieldwork in Luxemburg
Silvia Guerreschi
measurements. So the first day each instrument;
that the supervisor explained and gave
me to use; scared me and my first impulse was
always to give it to one of my group mates.
On Friday was the first day of Fieldwork. Everything
was already packed and prepared on the
bus since early in the morning, but for some
the departure was postponed to the afternoon
to be able to attend some other lectures. The
others instead left Delft to Heiderscheid, starting
to explore the basins of the Maisbich and
the Wark.
The rumors about this experience were enthusiastic:
lots of fun!
After the totally amazing Elbe tour, I dreamed
of another week of relax and amusement, a
sort of taste of holidays and summer.
How fool I was. But don’t be scared… At the
end I can say words-of my mouth (=aloud)
that all the funny aspects of a trip with friends
have been present. It was only the “relaxing”
part of the experience that I overestimate!
In fact now I can say lots of fun but lots of
work too. Anyway the fieldwork was so positive
and interesting that I can list only the positive
aspects.
My first time was also my main experiment:
Electrical Resistivity Tomography also called
the sex experiment. All the things were prepared
by Sebastian and Jan, our supervisors
that also followed us during the measurements.
The electrodes were planted in the ground
with a hammer, but what would be the depth
of the metal stick? Of course an approximated
depth, but how much approximated? After the
first two sticks, placed within an average of 10
minutes each, and after the set up was ready
to start the experiment, the current flowed in
the ground and the values in correspondence
with the electrodes were recorded.
The careful planting of the electrodes was nullified
by the metal body at the end of the cable,
left on the ground creating a short circuit… no
more results.
At the end my biggest happiness was to take
an instrument and give myself the time to understand
how it works.
But the experiments weren’t only taking some
data respecting the directions that the group
responsible for that particular experiment gave
us the night before, but also thinking with
some criteria about the measurements that
we were going to perform. All the experiments
that we have done were very interesting and
it was useful to see how to manage to do everything.
For example… I will never report the adverse
meteorological condition under which the
measurements were made, not even a word
about the rain and the cold, the wet cloths and
the mud, the steamy breath, the trembling,
chapping and red hands… At the beginning it
was very difficult. I am studying in a technical
school but my practical skills are quite poor
and I never been in a real field trying to do
22

Nothing could stop us.. neither the weather
nor the sometimes faulty equipment!
Brave Rudi leaped fearlessly in the river to
measure its sections regardless of the hole in
his plastic trousers and also Edwin, Koen and
Evelyn followed his heroic example continuing
their work even with not enough waterproof
equipment.Their efforts were rewarded with
cream sandwiches that Olivier and Hessel recovered
running after a mobile bakery and the
delicious ice cream they could buy in the villages.
How lucky were them (the supervisors
I mean).. always near some town where they
could find some greediness.
We were 20 people: 5 groups of 4 people and
4 tents of 5 people. After the work we came
back to the camping to take a warm shower
and to start cooking. Each tent had their rule:
in general who cooked wouldn’t do the dishes.
The problem was to satisfy the wish of all the
people and cook something good mixing the
right ingredients. Being for all of the tents the
same ingredients the dinner was the same for
all the people, and sometimes the supervisors
came and joined the dinners of the better
smelling tent. The task of the tent was also
to prepare the breakfast. For me was a very
bad moment. The waking up since the first day
seemed to be so difficult: I couldn’t believe the
speed of Ruben to get dressed in the morning:
5 minutes and he was ready! Fortunately
in mine tent was Evelyn that supported my
slower habit.
The socialization moments usually started after
11.00: in spite of the weariness of the long
day, all the people wanted to meet up and
drink a beer laughing about the funny things
every day brought. The meetings, of course!,
were in the central point, the basement! Only
one night, Saturday, most of the group moved
in Luxemburg city to visit the city and to try the
typical entertainments!
The groups of smokers before dinner or in the
afternoon were in front of their tent looking or
participating of the improvised football match
in preparation of the final one on Thursday.
In fact the last day was dedicated to amazing
activities:
The morning was reserved for the presentation
of each group and for the distribution of
the prices for “the coolest supervisor”, Martjin,
or “the ice injured cycle supervisor”, Jasper
and the lost of Janina in the camping (that
won against the nomination of Li to get lost in
Luxemburg city!)…
In the afternoon the football match took place
in the closer football field: the only female
player was Janina and Martjin represented all
the supervisors. Someone instead preferred to
relax in the camp or to go walking on the surroundings.
In the late afternoon the fire was lighted up
and the camp was prepared for the traditional
barbecue. Gerda, with lots of valid helpers,
took care of the cold food while the responsibilities
of the meat were left to Edwin and
other boys.
After the dinner, with the special saté of Olivier,
the fish, the pasta salade and the fruit salade
everybody sat around the fire to be warmed
and get closer to each other.
This was the end of the exiting fieldwork
2007.
New adventures will be expected the next
year!
23

VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
About the 40th board
Ruud van der Ent.
Dear fellow water managers,
When the fresh 41st board asked me to write
something about the previous half year, the
policy of the 40th board, of course I wasn’t
able to refuse, although I’m writing this piece
19 days after the official deadline we had set
with the previous board.
Anyway I hope to make this article somewhat
more interesting by telling my experiences of a
whole year in the board. When I was asked for
the board more than one year ago I was busy
organising the yearly symposium of the Dispuut,
so the Dispuut wasn’t something new for
me, but my fellow board members I still had to
get to known. Being the youngest and the only
non-member of a student society amongst two
DSC, two Virgiel and one CSR member was
something I really had to get used to. After all
I had a great time and I learnt a lot from my
fellow board members, but after half a year it
was time to bid farewell to Cees, Maarten and
Marloes.
Now it was time to decide upon new board
members and a new president. The new president
was me and I faced and enormous challenge,
how to make Floor and Harry behave
(during a board meeting), luckily they did not
give me such a hard time. Apart from this we
achieved quite a lot of things with the 40th
board. The previous Druppel for example was
the first in A4 and was received very well by
the readers, and I hope, also by the sponsors.
Furthermore the website was kept up to date
very well in my opinion. Moreover we visited
three companies: Witteveen+Bos, Kiwa Water
Research and HKV Consultants. Those days
were enjoyed very much by both companies
and students. In addition we had a very nice
symposium about Millennium Development
Goals. Besides these big activities I really had
the feeling that we did a good job being the
society for all water management students,
‘normal’ MSc students, international students
and BSc students by organising coffee gatherings
and borrels. Moreover I hope and know
that the Dispuut is also appreciated by the department
of water management. (Staff who is
not a member yet, become it soon at 4.94).
Of course there are always things that can be
done better; I mainly speak about some internal,
boring, but therefore not less important
things. On behalf of Harry, Floor and myself I
wish the 41st board the best of luck with professionalizing
the Dispuut, and I hope they will
organise a lot of unforgettable events!
24

Upcoming activities:
September
October
November
Spring 2008
Summer 2008
Windmill excursion
3rd year excursion
Active members excursion
Board Change
Symposium
Intercontinental Tour
Please Check our updated website!!!!
www.dispuutwatermanagement.nl
Wij zijn trots op het resultaat.
Jij ook?
Ondernemen in een complexe omgeving maar met overzicht,
betrokkenheid en verstand van zaken. Resultaatgericht: iedereen
zegt het, slechts enkelen maken het waar. ARCADIS: infrastructuur –
milieu – gebouwen. Los van elkaar maar ook integraal. We geven
de samenleving vorm door creatief te zijn in onze oplossingen en
daadkrachtig in de uitvoering.
Als medewerker van ARCADIS verlaat je gebaande paden. Je bent
onderdeel van een netwerk van zakelijke professionals. Ingericht
rondom klanten, zodat deze direct profiteren van onze kennis en
ervaring. Wij brengen ideeën tot leven. Jij ook?
Ben je geïnteresseerd in een baan op het gebied van
• bodem
• civiele techniek
• elektrotechniek
• infrastructuur
• installatietechniek
• locatieontwikkeling
• milieu
• recht
• ruimtelijke ordening
• water
Kijk dan voor meer informatie en actuele vacatures in
Nederland op www.arcadis.nl/carriere of bel met één
van onze recruiters, telefoonnummer 026-3778765.
Imagine the result

Commission of Education
Joanne van der Spek & Leon Valkenburg
By the time you read this Druppel, another
year of hard studying is coming to an end.
At the Dispuut Watermanagement we do our
best to make sure that education is kept at
a high level. Every period watermanagement
courses are evaluated to safeguard the educational
quality. We do this in cooperation with
the department of Watermanagement and the
department of student affairs of the faculty of
Civil Engineering. In this short article we report
to you the results of the previous evaluations
and ask your attention for upcoming course
evaluations.
In the last two periods the following courses
were evaluated, with the courses you can find
the results of the evaluations:
Block 1.2:
• CT 4490 Sewerage 1: Prof. Clemens is going
to look if the design assignment can be made
smaller.
• CT 4420, Geohydrology 1: Prof. Olsthoorn
is going to implement the homework assignments
better in the lectures.
• CT 5500, Water law and organization: Dr. E.
Mostert is going to update and improve the
lecture notes.
Block 2.1:
• CT 5420, Public hygiene and epidemiology:
Dr. P. Bol agreed to apply more structure in
his course. The lecture notes will be improved
for next year. In addition to this the use of
PowerPoint will be considered without loosing
the small scale, interactive character of the
course.
• CT 5540, Sewerage 2: No changes proposed
• CT 5550, Pumping stations and transport
pipelines: No changes proposed.
• CT 4431, Hydrologic models: Is currently still
being reviewed
• CT 4460, Polders and flood control: The
course will be taught in one group as much as
possible. The communication will be improved
and the exam will be written only. This way the
transparency is improved and both English and
Dutch students will be treated equally.
• CT 4440, Hydrological measurements: No
changes proposed
Besides water management courses, also the
compulsory course CT 4340 Computational
modelling of flow and transport was evaluated,
together with the Dispuut of Hydraulic Engineering.
We had a meeting with Prof. Stelling
to talk about the problems with his course. He
agreed to improve the lecture notes and his
lectures, he also had some personal problems
which may affected his lectures. The department
will also look for more student assistants
to guide the practical.
The coming periods the Dispuut will continue
in evaluating courses. Please fill in the questionnaires
and hand them in at room 4.74, and
if you have ideas about a course, or if you encounter
any problems, let me know. Changes
can be made, but we do need your help for
this.
Another thing that we will keep evaluating is
the block system, with full-day courses. Currently
Water Management is the only department
working in this way. The system has its
advantages, but also its problems. Do you
agree with the way courses are taught now, or
have any suggestions for improvement? Please
tell us!
Maybe of less importance for master students,
but very important for upcoming students of
water management is the planned change in
curriculum at the TU. The change means that
minors will be included in the bachelor. It is
important to prevent that the already scarce
water management courses in the bachelor
will suffer from the introduction of the minors.
So, do not forget to fill in the evaluation forms,
share your ideas about education, and, finally,
enjoy your well-deserved summer holidays!!!
27

VOL. 17 / 2 - 2007
The Young Scientist Workshop: urban water innovation
May 2007
Nadia Lugt
Started as an idea of Rutger de Graaf, PhD student
urban water management at the TU Delft
and sponsored by ‘The Transitions SUW Consortium,
the aim of this workshop was to bring
an international group of young scientists together
to create innovative ideas on problems
in urban water management. Innovation has
been an important aspect during the organization,
preparation and execution of this event.
The interesting question is how we proceeded
to reach this goal.
Because this event took place for the first time,
we had the freedom and challenge to come up
with all sorts of ideas. To start with, we decided
to make the workshop informal, to make
sure creative ideas would not be suppressed
by suits and square tables. Second, we tried
to diversify the group by asking young scientists
from all over the world and from different
backgrounds to join us. Third, we let our
unnatural landscape inspire the participants,
traveling with a boat through the polders.
As a result a group of 17 participants (ie PhD’s,
master students, post docs) from technical as
well as social sciences coming from Germany,
Korea, England, Egypt, Colombia, Australia and
the Netherlands joined us on a three day boat
trip through Noord-Holland. This provided the
opportunity to combine hard working with field
visits and social activities. During the three
days there were two main study cases where
the participants worked on in groups, guided
by several renowned experts from companies
and institutes: Tauw, Ecofys, Waternet, Fraunhofer
Institute, Monash University, and TU
Delft. The last day the two winning solutions
on an Australian and a Dutch case study were
presented in an afternoon symposium, hosted
by Waternet.
The first study case was prepared by Rebekah
Brown, program leader of the national
urban water governance program at Monash
University in Melbourne. She presented the
Australian urban water problems caused by
the ongoing drought and challenged the four
groups of participants to come up with innovative
solutions to this problem. Community
involvement, national pride and change of
organizational infrastructure were key points
the winning team presented to the jury. Resulting
in opening up water reservation area’s
to the public, reducing garden irrigation water
use by a competition for citizens to design the
best desert garden and a better co-operation
between the public and private water sector.
The second study case about the Overschie
area in Rotterdam was presented by Marianne
Kruger of the Municipal Works of Rotterdam.
Situated directly next to the A13, this area suffers
from health problems and high crime and
unemployment rates. As the Dutch government
has chosen this area as one of the prior-
30

ity areas for urban renewal, the groups were
challenged on how to upgrade this problematic
area using the urban water system as starting
point. The winning team presented a solution
based on similar key points like community
involvement, which resulted in a proposal for
floating markets selling local goods and hightech
innovative new social housing blocks.
Intensive work was complemented by some
cultural and social events. On our way to Alkmaar
we visited the Zaanse Schans where our
guide surprised us with a lot of interesting details
about water management in the old days,
showing examples like clever rainwater storage
in rain pipes. During one evening we had an
interactive workshop about urban agriculture
together with the Boatweek group of TU Delft
sustainability students. The combination of
students open mind and scientists experience
led to very interesting results, one of them being
a pyramid greenhouse where inhabitants
could take all advantages of the flows of nutrients,
energy and water.
solutions that contribute to effective urban
water management schemes. Rebekah Brown,
working on institutional development and organizational
change for advancing sustainable
water futures, introduced her work and experiences,
especially focusing on the transition to
more sustainable urban water management.
As a member of the organization, I can say it
has been a great experience for everyone. For
me it has been really inspiring to watch everybody
working together with great enthusiasm,
thinking about matters I also care about.
As members of the organizing team, though
young not yet scientists, everyone took great
interest in our ideas and involved us in their
work. The participants have shown their enthusiasm
by working together very hard with
great pleasure. The results of the case studies
were very much appreciated by the jury as
well as the experts present in the symposium.
Bringing together technical knowledge and a
social based approach has given this workshop
the extra impulse to become something special.
We were therefore very excited that Rebekah
Brown took up the challenge to organize
a similar workshop in Melbourne next year
as part of the Young Scientist Network.
At the symposium the two winning teams had
the chance to present their solutions to the
Dutch water sector. To put the seminar in an
international perspective, two well-established
experienced scientists presented their view on
sustainable urban water management. Carol
Howe from Unesco-IHE presented her work
at the international Switch-project, developing
scientific, technological and socio-economic
31

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waarde als je er iets
mee doet
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toepassing en onderhoud van kennis
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Kiwa Water Research is coördinator en uitvoerder
van het gezamenlijke onderzoek van
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partners en werkt samen met universiteiten,
andere kennisorganisaties en advies- en ingenieursbureaus
– een garantie voor innovatie
en voortdurend actuele kennis.
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en terreinbeheerders. Oók oplossingen voor
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