Flanders’ Pool Closures: A Subsidy Few Towns Are Using
More than 50 public indoor swimming pools have closed across Flanders since 2004, and a flagship Flemish subsidy scheme designed to reverse the decline is being taken up far more slowly than intended, according to VRT NWS. The region counted 54 fewer indoor public pools over roughly two decades, leaving about 140 in operation today and meaning only four in ten municipalities still have a pool of their own. Eighteen months after a dedicated subsidy decree entered into force, just four applications have been submitted.
The story is less about a single closure than about a structural squeeze: ageing facilities, sharply higher energy and water bills, and municipal budgets that can no longer absorb the shortfall. The consequence, critics warn, is a slow narrowing of access to swimming for recreation, sport and the school lessons that teach children how to stay safe in the water.
A wave of closures built into the concrete
Many of Flanders’ pools date from the 1960s and 1970s. A large share reached the end of their useful life around 20 years ago, and local authorities faced a stark choice: fund an expensive renovation or shut the doors. Most opted to close, VRT NWS reported.
The broader trend is visible in Sport Vlaanderen’s own figures. Public pools fell from 378 in 2004 to 292 in 2022, a decline of about 23 per cent. VRT’s count of 54 lost indoor public pools is a narrower measure focused specifically on municipal and publicly accessible indoor facilities, but it captures the same direction of travel.
What makes operating a pool so costly is not one expense but a stack of them. Aalter expects an energy bill of EUR 278,000 this year for its pool and sports halls, plus EUR 185,000 for cleaning staff and EUR 28,000 for water. Aalst paid EUR 260,000 for energy last year and EUR 108,000 for water at its new pool, which includes a 50-metre basin.
“Per swimmer we must also replace 60 litres of water, to keep it hygienic. Operating a swimming pool is simply incredibly expensive,” Aalter’s alderman for sport, Kristof De Blaere of CD&V/DU, told VRT NWS. His counterpart in Aalst, Matthias De Ridder of N-VA, put the municipal dilemma bluntly: “Large amounts, then, that not every local authority still wants to cough up.”
The decree that was meant to turn the tide
The Flemish Government’s answer was the so-called swimming pool decree (zwembaddecreet). Approved in draft in November 2024 and promulgated on 21 February 2025, it took effect on 1 June 2025. Under the scheme, the region invests EUR 6 million per year for 30 years, offering up to EUR 150,000 annually per project, indexed, for up to three decades from the operational phase.
The goal is ambitious: 40 new pools and at least 10,000 square metres of additional swimming water. To qualify, a project must include a basin of at least 25 by 10 metres, be accessible to a broad public, and open for at least 3,500 hours a year across 50 or more weeks. Operators must also charge fair rates, capped at EUR 2.80 per participant or EUR 18.50 per lane for clubs, schools and non-profits. Recreational pools and recreational water surfaces are excluded, and the subsidy cannot be stacked with certain other infrastructure grants. Applications are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
According to the government’s own announcement, the measure was framed as a decisive intervention in public swimming infrastructure.
Slow uptake, and a minister urging patience
Eighteen months in, however, only four subsidy applications have been submitted: Zaventem, Puurs-Sint-Amands, Bree and Veurne. Flemish Minister of Sport Annick De Ridder of N-VA says six more are in progress in 2026, naming Diest, Nijlen, Leopoldsburg, Wetteren and Aalter among them.
“Local authorities need time to prepare a good file, taking into account various factors such as available resources and permits,” she said. Applicants can only file once the real intention to build a public pool can be demonstrated, she added, with supporting documents from the tendering file, a needs assessment, feasibility studies and a specification of requirements. “That takes some time,” she said. “We expect applications to reach cruising speed next year. There are now four files awarded, and six more running in 2026.”
The pipeline is not empty. Zaventem is working with the operator Lago on a pool that will form part of a larger sports complex. Puurs-Sint-Amands expects its new Aquapassion pool to open in about a year, a private initiative backed by the municipality and Sport Vlaanderen. In November 2024, when the draft decree was approved, Sport Vlaanderen described the investment as a major push for extra public pools.
Swimming as a public service, and a school problem
The closures ripple well beyond leisure. Municipal pools are typically the cheapest option, and they are the ones that supply lane time to clubs and schools. Average prices for residents sit around EUR 4.00 in Flanders and EUR 3.60 in Brussels, while non-residents pay EUR 5.30 and EUR 5.10 respectively. Prices vary widely: Zedelgem’s municipal pool De Groene Meersen charges EUR 1.50, though its basin is only 16.6 metres long, while Sportoase Philipssite in Leuven charges residents EUR 8.70. Privately operated Sportoase complexes tend to be the priciest but also the largest and most modern.
The pressure is also felt in schools. Flemish attainment targets require pupils to swim unaided by the end of primary school, and schools must offer one free year of swimming lessons. But the maximum invoice (maximumfactuur) caps costs at EUR 110 per child this school year, and at roughly EUR 5 per lesson, 15 to 17 lessons can already reach EUR 75. Longer and costlier bus rides push the bill higher, so some schools swim less, according to VRT NWS.
The Flemish Swimming Federation has 55,000 members and estimates around 27,500 children are on waiting lists, its general director Pieterjan Vangerven has said. Antwerp’s swimming school counts 2,000 members but more than 4,000 children waiting, and can admit only about 800 a year. Private club lessons cost roughly EUR 250 to EUR 375 for about 30 lessons, with private tuition reaching as high as EUR 750 a year.
Tine Sleurs, a lecturer in physical education at Hogeschool UCLL, framed the stakes in stark terms. “We fear that learning to swim will soon be reserved only for the elite, while it is simply something that can save lives,” she said.
The geography of inequality
Access is unevenly distributed across the region. Flanders has only nine Olympic-size 50-metre pools in total. Oost-Vlaanderen has four (Aalst, Gent, Sint-Niklaas and Lochristi); West-Vlaanderen has three (Oostende, Brugge and Kortrijk); Antwerpen and Limburg have one each, in the city of Antwerp and Genk. Vlaams-Brabant, home to the region’s administrative centre, has none at all.
For residents, the cheapest province is West-Vlaanderen, with an average of EUR 3.50, while Limburg is the most expensive at EUR 4.50, as VRT NWS mapped in its overview of swimming costs. Operators also differ: municipal pools are generally cheapest, Lago and Farys sit mid-range, and external operators such as Sportoase typically charge the most.
What to watch
The test of the swimming pool decree will come over the next two years. If the six pending applications convert into construction and the promised 40 pools materialise, Flanders could begin to reverse a two-decade decline. If they do not, the region faces a familiar outcome: fewer pools, longer journeys, rising prices and a widening gap between children who can swim and those who cannot.
Several questions remain open. Will the region extend or restructure the scheme if uptake stays subdued? Can municipalities that already closed their pools find the capital and land to build again? And will school swimming lessons, squeezed between fixed budgets and distant facilities, keep pace with the standards the region has set for itself? For now, the figures point one way and the policy the other.