Flemish government invests in forty new public swimming pools

The new Flemish government has agreed to provide six million euros annually for thirty years for the construction and operation of new public swimming pools. As suggested in the coalition agreement, this could lead to at least forty new swimming pools in a relatively short period of time.

Flanders has a lot fewer public swimming pools today than twenty years ago. The number has fallen from 378 in 2004 to 292 in 2022, a drop of almost a quarter.

The previous Flemish government had already started catching up and the new government also has ambitious plans to boost the number of public swimming pools. “It is my ambition to use the available funds - six million euros a year - to support forty swimming pool projects and thus significantly increase the amount of available swimming pool water in the relatively short term,” said sports minister Annick De Ridder.

The subsidy will be paid annually and over an operating phase of up to thirty years. “In this way, we make the financing of a public swimming pool feasible for more potential builders and also support its sustainable operation. Because that's where the challenge lies for many local authorities.”

The support, a form of co-financing with a private partner or local authority, is specifically aimed at larger swimming pools with a sports function: they must have a minimum size of 25 by 10 metres. It is meant for new swimming pools or swimming pools that will be fully renovated.

Projects receiving subsidies will have to demonstrate annually that the pool is available to a wide audience: not only individual swimmers, but also sports clubs and schools. In addition, minimum opening hours and maximum entrance fees must be respected.

^{#FlandersNewsService | The Blocry swimming pool in Louvain-La-Neuve © BELGA PHOTO VINCENT FIFI}