RTV Maastricht – Maas Cleanup proposes a petition to the House of Representatives on March 29

Maas Cleanup – the organization that is committed to a cleaner Meuse and other rivers – will present the petition “La Maas dans la loi” in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 29 March.

Maas Cleanup has already mobilized many volunteers for various clearing actions on the banks of the Meuse. Although thousands of kilos of waste had been collected, it was clear that more was needed to make the river water cleaner.

The biggest problem is that ultimately no one is really responsible for what ends up in the Meuse. This would change if, for example, the Meuse was granted legal personality. Together with UN nature rights expert Jessica den Outer, Nina Rijsterborgh from Boels Zanders Advocaten and IVN interns, a petition was drafted.†

Jessica den Outer: “If people, companies and even municipalities can be legal persons, why not our nature? By granting the Meuse the status of a legal entity, an agent can assert its right to flow without waste on behalf of the river. The Meuse would not be the first river: this has already happened in New Zealand, Bangladesh, Ecuador, India and Colombia. So it’s definitely possible.”

The Meuse does not only flow in the Netherlands, but the petition primarily focuses on the entire Dutch river basin. Nina Rijsterborgh: “Many surface waters in the Netherlands do not yet meet the chemical and ecological quality requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive. To accelerate the improvement of water quality, more unconventional approaches are needed, such as granting rights to nature itself.

The petition has now been signed several times and will last until March 28. The following day, March 29, the Maas Cleanup heads to The Hague with a procession to the House of Representatives, where representatives from businesses and conservation organizations will present the petition to members of the House. representatives at 1:30 p.m. Interested persons are invited to participate in the march to the House of Representatives, which begins at 11:30 a.m. from Goudriaankade 100, register viawww.ivn.nl/maas-in-de-wet