From August 2012, a floating pool will be located in the docks in Antwerp.
The whole consists of two boats: a ship with a restaurant and bar and next to it the large ship with two swimming pools, a sun deck and in the middle a reed bed where all the waste water is purified. RietLand bvba collaborated with Naturally Wallace Consulting for the design. The reed bed is of the aerated type (FBA or 'Forced Bed Aeration') and is the first of its kind on the European mainland. The reed bed is built up in a steel container that is suspended in the center of the ship. The changing rooms and showers are located under the reed bed.
Pieter Peerlings of Sculp (IT) designed the Badboot as part of a competition. His winning design was built at a shipyard in Maasbracht. The helophyte filter was prepared at the shipyard. Then the whole sailed via the Albert Canal to Antwerp. Along the way in Schoten, construction was done to fill the reed bed with gravel.
The rietveld treats the sanitary wastewater of the restaurant, the bar, the toilets and showers. A first purification takes place in a vertically flow-through aerated section. This is followed by a second aerated reed bed in the same basin. However, this second basin is flowed horizontally. This gives an even better purification result than a single reed field. The nitrogen content in particular is therefore even lower.
The pool opened on August 14, 2012 and the first few weeks saw over 1,000 swimmers a day due to the good weather.
In 2013, a large number of samples were taken from the purified water. The tables below show some examples of the results achieved. It is almost impossible to do better. We are very satisfied!
| 19/09/13 | influent | VF out | HF out |
| BID | 740 | 3 | 3 |
| COD | 960 | 37 | 7 |
| TOC | 210 | 5,5 | 2 |
| N-tot | 89 | 5,9 | 2,6 |
| NH4-N | 84 | 0,1 | 0,1 |
| TKN | 89 | 2,2 | 2 |
| P-tot | 8,36 | 2,34 | 0,35 |
| 30/09/13 | influent | VF out | HF out |
| BID | 1050 | 7 | 3 |
| COD | 1390 | 33 | 7 |
| TOC | 440 | 8,6 | 2,6 |
| N-tot | 180 | 15 | 3,8 |
| NH4-N | 150 | 7 | 0,1 |
| TKN | 180 | 9,3 | 2 |
| P-tot | 16,1 | 2,68 | 0,57 |