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Amsterdam houseboats to be connected to sewer system; project Clean Ship has started

Amsterdam Tourist Information • Posted: January 24, 2009

Tourists and locals alike have made a boat tour of Amsterdam’s canals a sightseeing must — one that frequently tops the list of most popular tourist attractions in the Netherlands.

Houseboats at Raamgracht in Amsterdam
© Copyright DutchAmsterdam.nl. Want to use this photo?

The sights certainly are worth it: tree-lined canals; buildings dating as far back as the 17th century; monumental bridges; benches and canal-side terraces filled with flirtatious girls, gorgeous women and handsome young office workers on their lunch break; as well as a wide variety of pleasure craft and houseboats.

However, that idyllic boat ride through Amsterdam’s picturesque canals may sound a bit less romantic once you know that the city’s 3000 houseboats are, at this time, not yet connected to the sewer system.

For now, waste water — from the sink, the shower, the dishwasher and the toilet — is unceremoniously dumped into the canals.

That situation is about to change.

In 2005 a law was adopted that made it illegal to dump untreated waste water, but houseboats were — for the time being — exempted. This was due to the fact that each of the roughly 3000 houseboats in Amsterdam would need a different ship-to-sewer connection, involving custom adjustments made to the private vessels.

Two years later the City of Amsterdam said it would provide ship-to-sewer connections. A study was commissioned as to how to go about doing so.

As a results, various federal and local public waterworks departments have set up project ‘Schoonschip’ — Clean Ship — with the intention to see every houseboat connected to the sewage system by 2018.

A pilot project involving 6 vessels was successfully completed last December.

Technicians of Project Schoonschip will visit each houseboat to study the possibilities. They will then issue an advisory. Since the boat owners are themselves responsible for their part of the connection, they are provided with a €1250 subsidy each — to be paid upon successful completion of the ship-to-sewer connection.

As part of the project sewer and quaysides will be repaired as needed.