Canal It Up

We aim for a clean plastic-free canal in Brussels where nature has its place

IS THERE A PROBLEM?

Yes. The canal at the heart of Brussels has to face a constant stream of garbage, a lack of nature and a bad water quality.

HOW DO WE WANT TO INTERVENE?

RAISING AWARENESS

Every week with new volunteers we go fishing for trash in the canal with our kayaks.

GREENING THE CANAL

We propose to give nature its place back in the canal to transform it into a green and pleasant environment for people and animals through the installation of vegetalised islands.

INSTALLING A TRASH BARRIER

We are currently working on the installation of a permanent structure, to be placed close to the Molenbeek lock, to stop the trash and take it out of the water.

IMPROVING WATER QUALITY

Tackling the problem of the sewage overflows would allow to drasically improve the water quality of the canal.

RECYCLING

We are exploring creative solutions to recycle the trash collected in the canal.

send us your signatures

Fishing trash out of the canal is a good thing. Preventing it from getting there in the first place is even better. That is why we have launched a paper petition to obtain a hearing at the parliament and ask for the introduction of a deposit system and for the promotion of more reusable packaging. Therefore we need to collect 15.000 signatures.

Sign the petition, scan it or take a picture, and send it to info@canalitup.org or by old-fashioned mail to Leopold II laan 23, 1080 Brussel mentioning “Deposithon”. This needs to be on paper because the Flemisch Parliament doesn’t provide an online platform…

Number of signatures collected

15.000

SEWAGE DISCHARGE METER

Sainctelette: Overflow events in APRIL '22

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To the canal

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To the Senne

Every month we count the number of days the Sainctelette and Maelbeek overflows are activated and publish the results here. These numbers are to be compared to the current Flemish standard according to which an overflow can only function 7 days per year. The overflows in Brussels exceed this annual amount almost every single month. Three overflows in particular are responsible for 75% of the discharged volume into the Senne and the canal.