However, government and public opinion are still too little aware of the benefits of pipelines as a means of transport. In contrast to freight traffic by road, air or rail, for example, pipelines cause no sound pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases is minimal. Only the installation of the pipelines entails a temporary nuisance. 

 

What is more, pipeline transportation is especially energy-efficient and entails no empty return trips, wasted kilometres or by-products such as packaging whatsoever. Just to give an idea: to transport the same amount of energy as 1 natural gas pipeline, about 1.500 trucks with fuel oil would have to drive on our roads or about as many railway carriages with coal would have to crisscross the country. In this way pipelines ensure that freight traffic is to a large extent kept off the roads and thus contribute to safer roads. 

 

Moreover, when selecting the pipeline route the people and environment in the vicinity are taken into account. Once the installation is completed, pipelines also have practically no visual impact: only the beacons and markings indicate their presence. Pipelines are also safer than any other means of transportation. The number of accidents with a pipeline is very small, in stark contrast to the number of traffic accidents. Research shows that most incidents involving transportation pipelines occur when these pipelines are damaged due to work carried out in their proximity. And here the pipeline sector has developed proactive and pragmatic solutions: via the KLIM website contractors and building clients can quickly and easily do the necessary in order to be able to work in complete safety. 

 

The entire development of the pipeline sector, in fact, is a quiet revolution in sustainable transport and has contributed significantly to the fact that Belgium can today refer to itself as an international junction in the flow of goods in Europe. Thus, companies in the petrochemical and chemical sector mostly use pipelines for inward flows of basic raw materials. And Belgium is also the turntable par excellence of the international natural gas flows in Europe. 

 

Pipeline transportation has a promising future. After all, the social demand for sustainable solutions paves the way to an increase in pipeline transportation and the development of certain sectors will also contribute to this. Thus, for example, the supply situation of natural gas in Belgium and Europe is changing, with natural gas having to come from sources further afield. In this context Belgium can increasingly play its role as international turntable in order to secure its own supply of natural gas. The development of the international (petro)chemical axis Rotterdam-Antwerp-Ruhr will also be a motor for the growth of the pipeline sector.

 

A good future, but with one important difficulty: the numerous and lengthy authorisation procedures which are needed for the installation of the pipelines. For each new pipeline a new route has to be traced. No easy number in a densely populated country like Belgium. And for each new pipeline separate authorisation procedures have to be started up. Here, the sector has in the last few years noticed the NIMBY effect increasing strongly. A fundamental paradox: everybody expects to be able to rely unfailingly on essential services, but the installation of the infrastructure for this cannot automatically rely on the support of government and inhabitants in the vicinity.

 

Part of the solution for new pipelines may lie in regional authorities recognising, in environmental implementation plans, strips that are specifically reserved for the installation of pipelines. These pipeline routes can constitute a sustainable solution: the safety of the pipelines can be better guaranteed, investments in pipeline infrastructure will not be slowed down and the pipeline routes will in this way disturb the local population and the environment as little as possible.