Flemish Minister Jo Brouns visits K-Boringen site in Bekkevoort

Flemish Minister for Environment and Agriculture Jo Brouns today visited the construction site of infrastructure group APK Group in Bekkevoort as part of the Voka Summer Internships. During the visit, he learned about the operations of APK Group and discussed the challenges currently facing the construction and infrastructure sector.

The visit took place within the framework of the Voka Summer Internships, an initiative by Voka (the Flemish Chamber of Commerce) that brings policymakers closer to the sectors affected by their policies. In his capacity as Flemish Minister for Environment, Brouns visited APK Group in Bekkevoort, where its microtunnelling division K-Boringen is active. In Bekkevoort, K-Boringen is building a new wastewater treatment plant for Aquafin together with Besix. Projects of this kind are an important part of the Flemish “bouwshift” (the shift towards more sustainable land use), contributing among other things to better protection against flooding and water damage. Alongside the halt to further land take (the so-called “betonstop” or “concrete stop”), improving water quality is another key objective of the bouwshift.

Following a guided tour in which K-Boringen demonstrated exactly how trenchless drilling works, Minister Brouns and Ward Kerkhofs, Managing Director of APK Group, discussed a number of shared concerns for the infrastructure and wastewater treatment sector. Topics included the lead times of permit procedures, the regulations on the reuse of excavated soil, and the inflow of technically skilled staff in a sector that continues to struggle with a persistent labour shortage.

Afterwards, Ward Kerkhofs expressed his satisfaction with the minister’s visit. “The Voka Summer Internships are a fantastic initiative for every sector. The opportunity to talk one-on-one with policymakers offers unique added value for both parties.” With more than 2,600 employees, APK Group is one of the leading players in the infrastructure sector, with the experience needed to clearly map out the pain points. “We presented our concerns about the bouwshift and its impact on the sectors involved to the Minister. We both agree that there is work to be done and that the sector and policymakers need to work closely together to successfully achieve the objectives of the bouwshift,” says Kerkhofs.

Flemish Minister for Environment and Agriculture Jo Brouns stresses the importance of projects such as the wastewater treatment plant in Bekkevoort. “It is particularly interesting to visit this specific project through the Voka Summer Internships, because it fits perfectly with the steps we are taking to improve our water quality,” says Brouns. “Sewerage and wastewater treatment go hand in hand: you can only treat what is actually delivered through a well-developed sewer network. This sewer carries the wastewater of more than 3,500 residents to Aquafin’s wastewater treatment plant a little further along in Bekkevoort. Both the trunk sewer and the treatment plant are essential to further reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen pollution load on the Pijnbeek. These projects also deliver a much-needed, significant increase in the treatment rate in the region.”

For Voka, this site visit was exactly what the Voka Summer Internships stand for: they provide an opportunity to open a direct dialogue between policymakers and businesses. “This site visit shows why the Voka Summer Internships are so valuable. Here, policymakers see up close what entrepreneurs and their employees need every day to move important infrastructure projects forward. Faster and more predictable permits, workable regulations and sufficient technical talent are crucial in this respect. If we want to renew our infrastructure while at the same time delivering on our ambitions for water quality and climate, entrepreneurs must be given the room to invest and to carry out projects. This dialogue between policymakers and the shop floor helps us arrive at solutions that also work in practice,” says Johann Leten, Managing Director of Voka – Chamber of Commerce Limburg.