In Geelbroek, clean groundwater rich in lime rises to the surface, and the nature of the Drentsche Aa valley depends on it. To keep that water in the area for longer, ditches have been filled in or made shallower, and shallow channels and embankments have been built. According to the province of Drenthe, this makes the Drentsche Aa better able to cope with long dry spells and heavy rain. In time, a mix of woodland, scrub, marsh and grassland should develop.
Farmers around the area fear that a higher water table will also make their fields wetter, so that they can only start working the land later in the spring and have to stop earlier in the autumn, reports the Rolderpost, Rolde's village paper. According to farmers in the neighbourhood, even a small rise in the water level can cut the yield considerably; in some cases they fear losses of up to about 20 per cent.
