The municipality of Arendonk highlights the importance of green spaces for a pleasant living environment and the impacts of climate change, such as recent heatwaves. To ensure sufficient water availability in the future, it is crucial that rainwater infiltrates the soil as much as possible, rather than being immediately drained away via sewers. This water can serve as a reserve during dry periods.
Front gardens offer significant potential for this. Through the 'It seeps through here' campaign, the municipality aims to inspire the creation of green, climate-friendly front gardens. Small interventions such as disconnecting downpipes, reducing unnecessary paving in favour of greenery, and creating variations in garden levels, like shallow depressions (wadi's), can make a big difference.
Residents participating in the campaign and making their front gardens water-friendly have a chance to win an AHA voucher worth 50 euros. Photos of their front gardens can be submitted by 25 November 2026 via www.kempen2030.be/hiersijpelthetdoor. Subsidies for many of these interventions are also available from the local government, detailed at www.arendonk.be/subsidies.
Further tips and inspiration can be found at www.kempen2030.be/hiersijpelthetdoor. The campaign is a collaboration between IOK and the sewer manager Aquafin.
