KEPEJORA

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Waterway reopened after salvage of barge was completed

The refloating operation of the 'Kepejora' has been completed, but the barge was still moored at the quayside, upstream of the Auvelais lock, surrounded by an oil boom as a precaution, one week after it sank. A dredger removed the remainder of the cargo from the hold on July 30. It was carrying 1,400 tons of scrap metal that had just been loaded at Châtelet, at the Comet group quay, when an undetected leak of unknown origin caused it to sink after startomg its journey to Ghent. The cargo was transferred onto dozens of truck trailers and talem tp Bruco. Then the dive company L.M. Diving Service y from Audenaarde was called to reefloat the ship, and sucked up nearly 1,400 tons of water using very high-capacity pumps. On the evening of July 29, the barge was floaing again. 0 tons of oil were pumped from a tank, and the oil contaminated water was removed from the surface without major difficulty. A crack was found at the stern of the vessel, near the cabin,which was nearly a meter long and could quickly be sealed by the divers. On the morning of July 31 the barges and pleasure craft—about 15 boats—were able to cast off morning and resume their respective voyages, after their crews were supplied with drinking water. Report with photo: https://www.lavenir.net/regions/namur/2025/07/31/sambreville-lecluse-dauvelais-rouverte-a-la-navigation-mais-la-peniche-coulee-ira-a-la-casse-R7BFLCAL4ZD6FHFR24TS3J7S44/

Work to combat pollution continued

At the 'Kepejora', which sank the Sambre River near Auvelais with nearly 20 tons of fuel oil on board, the operations continued to stem the pollution caused by the shipwreck. The ship has been refloated late on July 29, but the operations have not been completed. On July 26, a floating barrier had been installed to contain the several thousand liters of fuel oil, which leaked from a damaged tank, and prevent any pollution of the Sambre River. The damaged tank was plugged by divers on July 26. The objective of the next operations was to contain the pollution and reopen the lock as quickly as possible. To achieve this, a pump truck arrived on site on July 30. The next objective was to tow the barge to a shipyard for dismantling Report with photo: https://www.sudinfo.be/id1022858/article/2025-07-30/les-operations-se-poursuivent-autour-de-la-peniche-qui-sombre-dans-la-sambre

Sunken barge to be pumped out

The Walloon Waterways Directorate continued to deal with the 'Kepejora', that sank in Auvelais. After the barge has been emptied of its 1,400 tons of scrap cargo, a specialized company was preparing the wreck for refloating on July 29, using powerful pumps, which have to remove the same amount of water from the flooded holds, in an effort to quickly restore ship traffic on the Sambre, which remained suspended due to a pollution threat. Report with photo: https://www.lavenir.net/regions/namur/2025/07/29/sambreville-dans-la-peniche-coulee-1-400-000-litres-deau-a-pomper-6YQMZR4RR5FRJCNSKZYPIPX7GY/