// MIT TECH REVIEW — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
WaveSave and its portable rubber dam
The Dutch company has deployed its mobile barrier during floods on three continents to protect farms, hospitals, and water treatment plants.
As sea levels rise and flood risks worsen due to global warming, WaveSave’s easy-to-erect portable dam offers a quick-response tool. People can use the dam to protect themselves and their property, and it can also store freshwater for later use. Communities in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia have deployed it successfully. Now, the company is expanding into other water-related services to help vulnerable places become more resilient.
One in five people globally are at high risk of being exposed to serious floods. Many live in communities without proper protection and can’t afford to evacuate during a flood or relocate permanently. Climate change-driven extreme weather and sea-level rise is only exacerbating the problem.
WaveSave makes a portable rubber dam called SlamDam that customers can quickly install in the early hours of a flood. Anyone can unfurl it on the ground along a riverbank or shoreline and pump it full of water until it swells into place. And there it stands, up to 1.3 meters high, shielding nearby property or structures from damage as waters rise.
Developed in 2013 in the Netherlands, SlamDam was initially tested and is still used today by regional water authorities in that country. WaveSave has since expanded into Africa and Southeast Asia, and customers have now deployed SlamDam in at least a dozen countries.
Due to both climate change and population growth, nearly 2 billion people will be exposed to floods by 2100—an increase of 300 million from 2020, according to one estimate.
A SlamDam is designed to help protect farmland and personal property as well as critical facilities like hospitals or water treatment plants. It’s cheaper in the short term than more permanent modifications like building levees or rebuilding facilities on higher ground. And its temporary nature means it can be deployed as needed, and then stored away.
To fill the SlamDam, a local installer can use any portable water pump they may have on hand. With a lifespan of more than 40 years, the flood barriers can be used again and again.
This low-tech solution has another important benefit, at least when it comes to freshwater floods: In the weeks and months after a flood, residents can tap the water stored inside the mobile dam to irrigate crops. This is particularly helpful during the dry season or in drought-prone regions. At the rural Mpanda commune in Burundi in East Africa, where a SlamDam was deployed during the 2022 flood season, farmers with access to the water inside produced more crops that year and doubled their incomes, according to a UN report.
Companies like AquaFence, MegaSecur, and NOAQ Flood Protection also make mobile flood barriers. WaveSave distinguishes itself in part by focusing on rapid emergency deployment in developing countries, and by emphasizing SlamDam’s ability to store water for later use.