Procuring portable pumps - Dutch style
Published: 01 January, 2006
Although governments and local authorities do everything they can to prevent them, Europe’s coastal areas and rivers are flooding with alarming regularity. Richard Verhoef of Kuiken Hytrans b.v. comments:
“The Dutch have invested time and money in developing units like the special High Volume Water Transport System, manufactured by Kuiken Hytrans. There are over 200 of these systems in Holland; in the UK the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is currently taking delivery of 50 sets under the High Volume Pumping project. These new units have already been deployed in the UK during floods in Carlisle and the Glastonbury festival.”
Other users include Belgium, Germany, Turkey, China, Japan, USA, Canada for flooding and large-scale firefighting operations: after the Izmit (Turkey) earthquake in 1999, several pumping units were flown in from Germany to fight refinery fires caused by the damage. Richard Verhoef explains: “Most pumps rely on a suction lines which connects the water to the pump. Sucking water has its limits and a maximum draft of 7.5 metres is the result.”
The Kuuiken solution - a water transport system without draft problems - is essentially a High Volume Submersible pump which is both submersible and hydraulic-driven first developed over 20 years ago. It is fed via60 metres of hydraulic hose energised by a diesel-drivenpower pack. This enables thepump to be hand-carried to locations where it is impossible to use standard suction pumps.












