A video of canal cleaning in Amsterdam has stunned the internet. Shared by Cosas de la Vida on Twitter, the clip shows authorities cleaning up the waterways by using a giant claw-like machine to clear bicycles and debris from the canal.
The 16-second video was shared on October 8 and has been viewed more than 8 million times on Twitter. The caption of the video, translated from Spanish to English, reads: “Cleaning the canals of Amsterdam.”
Watch the video here:
Limpiando los canales de Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/LpqVIdVNcc
— Cosas de la Vida (@Cosasdevida_12) October 8, 2022
The internet was stunned by the video and it is widely distributed. One user wrote: “We had a brilliant boat trip a few years ago and our guide said the lower third of the canal was a pretty solid bike, looks like she was right!” Another user commented: “On my first visit there, I was impressed by all the bikes I saw on land. I thought there were so many underwater too.”
The third user wrote: “There are more than 160 canals in Amsterdam and most of them were built in the 17th century. There are more than 800,000 bicycles in Amsterdam. More than 10,000 bicycles are fished out of the canals every year.”
According to The Guardian, thousands of bicycles are thrown into rivers, ponds, lakes and canals every year. No one knows exactly why or how so many bicycles end up in the water. “The situation in Amsterdam is perhaps best explained with simple math. There are an estimated 2 million bicycles in the city and 30 miles of canals, and logic dictates that there will be an overflow from one to the other. When a Amsterdammer has to get rid of an old bicycle, a waterway is often the most convenient waste container.The Dutch newspaper Trouw once characterized Amsterdam’s canals as “those traditional garbage cans that we take our visitors on boat trips,” according to the publication.
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