Scheldt Youth Parliament Join

Meet the Scheldt

Escaut, Schelde, Scheldt: one river, three names. It runs from a village in northern France to the North Sea, through three countries that share it, and share its problems too.

A guide with a walking stick talks to the group on the riverbank while a young participant stands on the edge above the water
350
kilometres from its source near Gouy to the sea at Vlissingen
3
countries: France, Belgium and the Netherlands
12.9
million people live in its river basin district
160
kilometres inland: twice a day, the tide reaches as far as Ghent

Down the river

Seven places from the source to the sea, and what we did there.

Map of the Scheldt from its source in France to the North Sea, with the seven places numberedBelgiumFranceNetherlandsBelgium1Gouy2Valenciennes3Tournai4Ghent5Antwerp6Saeftinghe7Vlissingen
  1. France

    Gouy: where it begins

    It starts small, on a plateau near the village of Gouy, 95 metres above sea level.

    We were here Act for Scheldt, April 2019: a visit to the source

  2. France

    Denain to Valenciennes

    The young Scheldt runs between locks, built for barges. More than 250 weirs and locks shape the river and its side rivers, and 138 kilometres of it are canalised. Along the banks, people are giving the river room again.

    We were here Scheldt walk, April 2025

  3. Belgium, Wallonia

    Tournai

    Just upstream, the river leaves France. In Wallonia it keeps its French name, the Escaut, right through the old town.

    We were here Plenary of the International Scheldt Commission, June 2026

  4. Belgium, Flanders

    Ghent

    Now it is the Schelde, about 65 metres wide. The Lys joins it here. Twice a day the tide comes this far, up to the locks in Ghent.

    We were here Exchange on floods and climate, May 2026

  5. Belgium, Flanders

    Antwerp

    The river made Antwerp a port city. Sea-going ships sail up the Scheldt all the way to the city's docks.

    We were here Our first plenary, October 2008

  6. The Netherlands

    The Drowned Land of Saeftinghe

    Just past the border: 3,500 hectares of marsh where river and sea water mix, the largest in Western Europe. Villages stood here until the land flooded in the Eighty Years' War.

    We were here Around the time we started, a gathering in Kieldrecht, right on the border

  7. The Netherlands

    Vlissingen: the sea

    Here the river meets the sea, about 5 kilometres wide. Twice a day, more than a billion cubic metres of water flow in and out: as much as 400,000 Olympic swimming pools.

    We were here Workshops on the rights of the Scheldt at HZ and a beach clean-up, January 2024

Why the river needs you

What happens upstream is felt downstream. These are the questions we work on together.

Too much, too little

Floods and dry summers

Storms, a rising sea and heavy rain on one side, drought on the other. How do cities and farms live with both?

Exchange in Ghent
Clean water

Could you drink from it?

That is the question behind the Drinkable Rivers walks. What ends up in the river upstream flows on downstream.

Scheldt walk in France
A voice for the river

Rights for the Scheldt

Should a river have rights, like a person? We have been debating it with HZ University of Applied Sciences since 2023.

Exchange in Zeeland

Figures from the International Scheldt Commission (in Dutch); the tide from Scheldemonitor; Saeftinghe from its Ramsar site description; the widths, the weirs and locks and the swimming pools from GoodPlanet's brochure 10 years of the Scheldt Youth Parliament (2017, in Dutch).

Want to make waves?

  • Be heard
  • Make friends
  • Learn by doing
  • Have a good time
Join us

For anyone aged 16 to 26 living in France, Belgium or the Netherlands