Malem: how Belgium's garden-city suburb is sinking into a swamp

Damp basements, cracked walls and wallpapers dotted with mould patches - life in the town built on marshland is getting sticky, reports De Standaard

With street names such as Gijzelaarsweg (Hostage Way), Politiek Gevangenenlaan (Political Prisoners' Avenue) and Helden Plein (Heroes' Square), the Ghent suburb of Malem is a place of highs and lows. Especially a place of lows. Malem is one of the lowest-lying areas of the province: a marshy area west of Ghent, picturesque, but inexorably embraced by the Leie (or Lys) river.

It's an embrace that increasingly resembles a stranglehold and, despite the strong foundations of the social housing built in 1952, the water climbs up into the houses. The basements are damp, walls cracked and mould patches dot the wallpaper. Renovation in 2008 has been of little help.