WEEKENDPORTRET - Chris Danckaerts: "Drought 2018 was wake-up call"

With some 1,300 employees and an annual budget of 450 million euros, engineer Chris Danckaerts – as managing director of the 15-month young merger group De Vlaamse Waterweg – watches over the Flemish navigable waterway network. In figures: more than 1,000 kilometres of navigable waterways, more than 2,000 kilometres of towpaths, 131 locks, 1,100 kilometres of dykes, 195 kilometres of quay walls, 78 marinas and 800 bridges. Maintaining and dynamically developing all this infrastructure ensures your and my safety, helps fight mobility infarcts, creates enormous recreational and tourism opportunities and is the driving force behind numerous innovative projects. In short, an impressive portfolio of competences. Who is the man in charge of all that?