During May and June, southern Germany was hit by extensive flooding and the local rescue services in many cases had to work around the clock to fight against the masses of water. But after major floods in the country in 2021, preparedness has been increased and today NOAQ’s mobile flood barriers are on hand in many areas of Germany. One area is the small village of Unterroth in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, where NOAQ Boxwall was successfully deployed to stop the water.

Photo: The Red Cross assists in evacuating villagers from the flooded areas.

Photo credit: kfv-nu.de / wasserwacht-illertissen.de

NOAQ Flood Protection AB will participate in a four-year research project at the University of Gävle in Sweden, with the aim of developing more effective methods for flood protection. The project has been awarded 2.6 million SEK from the KK Foundation (Knowledge Foundation) and will run from 2025 – 2028. The total funding budget for the project is 5.5 million SEK.

“We want to reduce the global impact caused by floods and help create a more flood resilient society. We see this project as a great opportunity to not only develop our own products, but also investigate how the products can influence the planning of flood mitigation measures across all sectors” – says Sigurd Melin, CEO at NOAQ.

Read more about the research project in the University’s press release here.

Photo: Faaborg Rögeri Cafe in Denmark protected against storm Babet using NOAQ Boxwall BW102

Photo Credit: Dansk Fugtstop

By utilizing the bookend principle, the NOAQ Boxwall is ballasted by the weight of the flood water itself. There is no need for additional fixings or anchoring methods. However, in the situation where Boxwall has been deployed during a storm and before floodwaters can anchor the boxes, there is a risk that they could be lifted and blown away if strong enough winds hit them from the back (dry side). A few sandbags strategically placed on the horizontal base section of the boxes could help weigh them down, but this is not an ideal long-term solution. Therefore, the challenge has been could we develop a storm protection device that is simple, easy-to-use, and sustainable – just like the Boxwall!

Now we have developed a solution that again uses water to ballast. With the winter snow gone, we’ve finally been able to test our latest storm protection device prototype outdoors. The idea was to build a BW52 and BW102 Boxwall with the prototype attached and use a helicopter to create the necessary storm winds (ca 25m per second). And now we have done just that. The outcome… the boxes stood firm – a success!

Stay tuned for further news about the release of our latest accessory developed specifically for the NOAQ Boxwall Flood Fighting System.

Thanks to Scandair Helicopter for the help and assistance.

Photo credit: NOAQ Flood Protection AB

Two new countries have been added to NOAQ’s world map of distributors for the NOAQ Flood Fighting System. In Greece, a distributor agreement has been signed with Idator, a company that has been in operation for over 50 years and specializes in clean water and wastewater applications as well as manufactures electrical panels and firefighting equipment such as pump systems. And in South America, NOAQ has appointed the company Jprintech to distribute its products throughout Ecuador, a country that is repeatedly affected by floods, not least during the so-called “El Nino years”, and most recently as last month.

“We are the leading company in Greece for water technology and solutions, but the latest leap forward for us is our engagement in Civil Protection sector. Our ambition is to establish ourselves in this new domain with solutions such as the NOAQ Flood Fighting System and become part of Greece’s arsenal against natural and technological disasters” – says John Paparas, Idator’s Business Development Manager in Civil Protection Division.

“We see a great opportunity to offer a smart solution for the floods that hit my country. Our business focuses on the sale of signage and industrial safety products and absorbent materials for spills. For this reason, we see NOAQ Flood Fighting System as a perfect complement to our existing product portfolio. I am sure that we will work together to grow our mutal businesses” – says Paul Brito Commercial Manager at Importadora Jprintech.

“We’re excited about the addition of these two new distributors to our network. Their partnership marks a step forward for us, and we’re eager to collaborate with them to expand the reach of our solutions and help create a more flood resilient society globally. With their expertise and dedication, we’re optimistic about the possibilities and look forward to a successful journey together” – says Douglas Hellström, VP and Sales Manager at NOAQ Flood Protection Ab.

Photo: Idator headquarters in Athens, Greece.

NOAQ Flood Protection AB takes further steps in supporting the organizations growth plan and ambitions for the future by appointing Patric Lindh as its new production and purchase manager. Patric has extensive experience in purchasing, product development and manufacturing, and most recently held the position as a buyer at Oil Quick AB, the market leader of automatic quick attachment systems for construction machinery, with its headquarters in the nearby town of Hudiksvall.

“I have had my eyes on NOAQ for almost 4 years and couldn’t resist applying when the opportunity arose. The product and the company is here just at the right time and this will be a very interesting journey over the next few years. NOAQ’s keywords about working and living in Näsviken and the surrounding area was also a big plus for me as I live with my family in the village.

I hope that with my experience from previous very expansive international companies I can contribute to NOAQ’s continued success. I look forward to meeting everyone from suppliers and customers to build on my network and knowledge within NOAQ’s segment”.

We warmly welcome Patric to the NOAQ team!

NOAQ Flood Protection AB, in Näsviken, Sweden, is growing and agrees new partnerships in Sweden with two strong resellers: InduSafe Supplies AB and PlastInject Watersystems AB.

InduSafe Supplies AB, with its expertise in spill and absorbent materials, looks forward to including NOAQ’s Flood Fighting System into their product range. “After closely following NOAQ’s exciting development, we are happy to welcome them as our new partners. We see their innovation products as a perfect complement to our existing range of consumables” – says Elias Prasiadas, co-owner of InduSafe Supplies AB.

PlastInject Watersystem AB, which belongs to the Lundahl & Wall group, focuses on stormwater management products. With applications in the purification and management of stormwater, they offer a wide range of heavy metal and particle separators and are the leader through its own product of stormwater cassettes.

“We warmly welcome InduSafe Supplies AB and PlastInject Watersystems AB as our certified resellers on the Swedish market. Their dedication and experience in their respective sectors will not only strengthen our market position, but also enable us to handle the increased need for our products which arose as a direct result of the recent floods around Sweden. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration and are convinced that their commitment will contribute to our joint success” – says Douglas Hellström, Sales Manager at NOAQ.

Through these strategic collaborations, we can increase the availability of our NOAQ Flood Fighting System and take another step towards our vision of creating a more flood-resilient society.

Photo on the left: Elias Prasiadis, co-owner of InduSafe AB
Photo on the right: PlastInject Watersystem’s two production facilities in Sweden.

Our certified distributor in Germany, Fritz Raschel Feuerschutz Gmbh, shared a quote from Andreas Hartwig, the Fire Chief for the city of Sonneberg, describing the recent deployment of NOAQ Boxwall as follows:

“This situation was about a pond that overflowed because it had reached its capacity, and the water threatened to flow into the town of Haselbach.

We decided on the Boxwall system, because an effort of this kind had been done before, with sandbags, and had then required a lot of time and personnel.

Thanks to the Boxwall, we were able to effectively reduce the deployment time by more than 70%, and also got a significantly simpler logistics. It allowed us to direct the water along the roadside and to a suitable stormwater well or watercourse.

During the floods in Christmas 2023, we used the system in other places in Sonneberg, where the result was also positive.

This system made our work much easier, and we have therefore purchased additional Boxwalls.”

Photo: Stadt Sonneberg

Translation: NOAQ Flood Protection AB

A more serious incident occurred in the Seebühel district, where a flooded retention basin threatened several buildings and almost caused a blockage of the L211. Through the decisive use of the mobile flood protection NOAQ Boxwall and several pumps, FF Kramsach managed to divert the newly created stream and thus prevent major damage. A special thanks goes to FF Radfeld, who was there with his Chiemsee sewage pump and made a significant contribution to solving the problem, reports Grampelhuber GmbH on its website.

Link to original post.

The year 2023 has been a journey filled with achievements, successes, but also challenges, and we look forward to continuing this positive trend in the coming year.

During 2023, we have been able to share inspiring “success stories” from different corners of the world, to mention a few:
Flood Defense Group in the United States performed a spectacular rescue operation with temporary flood barriers from NOAQ, saving the flood-stricken Navajo village of Chinle in Arizona.
Danish Faaborg Rökeri Café stood strong against storm Babet by surrounding its entire building with a NOAQ boxwall.
Locally in Hudiksvall, Glysisvallen, the city’s sports arena, was saved twice during the year by diverting rising water from a nearby stream with the help of NOAQ boxwall, that the city has bought the previous year.

”We do still not know where this journey will end. When I made my first tubewall prototype back in 1993 after witnessing a flooding in Sweden where sandbags were used to stop the water, I had a feeling that this could become something big. At that time, there were no mobile flood barriers at all on the market and the very concept of “mobile flood barriers” was still unheard about. So, I had to try to develop a product on my own, together with some friends.
Now, 30 years later we note that there now is such an industry, consisting of a number of companies offering a variety of mobile flood barriers on the international market. This is not bad, it is stimulating. NOAQ has the ambition to be at the forefront of this development. Last year we proposed the Swedish Institute for Standards (SIS) to develop a specific standard for mobile flood barriers, and now we are heavily involved in such a project.” Sigurd Melin, CEO NOAQ Flood Protection AB.

We look forward to our continued work to create a more flood-resilient society by delivering mobile flood protection to the entire world.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at NOAQ! A big thank you to our fantastic partners, distributors, and customers for 2023. We look forward to continuing our journey together and aiding even more people and communities in becoming more flood-resilient in 2024. Wishing you a happy Christmas and a successful new year!

Best wishes,
The NOAQ Team

In August the ice-hockey arena Glysisvallen in Hudiksvall was saved from becoming flooded, using a Boxwall from NOAQ. Now it has happened again. Last weekend an unusually early snowfall was followed by an unusually heavy rainfall, and the combination had Swedish meteorology board SMHI issue a red alert flood warning for small watercourses in the south coastlands of Norrland. In Hudiksvall the Hornån river broke its banks, and like in August the water was aiming at the arena, which is located close to the river. So the property owner had to quickly build up a Boxwall to divert the watermasses.

– From yesterday until now, I would still say it went well, the barriers have held and no water that shouldn’t be there has entered the building, says Glysisvallen’s CEO Lars Stål in an interview Monday for the local newspaper Hudiksvalls Tidning.

We are finalists for the 2023 Social Actor of the Year award in the Innovation category! The motivation reads as follows:

“For not only creating an innovative product but also addressing a critical aspect of disaster management. With their simple yet groundbreaking solution to an increasingly urgent problem with flooding, NOAQ Flood Protection contributes a vital solution to a growing global challenge.”

The Social Actor of the Year award is presented by Gullers Group in collaboration with Dagens Industri to an individual or organization that looks beyond personal gain, has a systemic impact, and a positive effect on societal development.

In a world that is unpredictable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, there are incredible opportunities for those who can navigate effectively. Gullers Group and Dagens Industri aim to highlight more individuals and organizations working to tackle challenges and positively impact society.

The Social Actor of the Year is an award presented by Gullers Group and Dagens Industri in three categories: Sustainability, Leadership, and Innovation—three areas that influence all organizations today but have special significance for social actors when combined with compelling narratives.

The Process:
The public nominates candidates for the Social Actor of the Year, and jury groups then select three finalists and a winner in each category. To be eligible for the award, a nominee must meet four overarching criteria:

1. HAS A SYSTEMIC IMPACT. A social actor has actively brought about change.
2. HAS ACHIEVED EFFECT. A social actor’s visions and ambitions have translated into actual, measurable effects.
3. DESIRES TO COMMUNICATE. A social actor does not operate in silence. There is a willingness to share knowledge and achieve an impact through communication.
4. LOOKS BEYOND SELF-INTEREST. A social actor wants to contribute to the public good beyond their own business, perhaps even at the expense of short-term gains.

For the Innovation award, the following additional criteria apply:
– The social actor’s ideas/offers have broken new ground in addressing societal issues or functions.
– The social actor’s actions have had disruptive effects on society.
– The social actor has influenced both public debate and people’s actual behaviors.

The winner will be announced on November 20th.

NOAQ is delighted to be nominated for this award and to be one of the finalists. The winner will be announced on Friday 13 October 2023.

“Standards play a critical role in the ability to drive innovation, promote fair competition and solve global challenges. With a gold-edged award, we want to celebrate innovative initiatives and inspire more people to pave the way for real societal benefits with the support of standardization.“ SiS (The Swedish Institute for Standards)

More information at SiS website

– The new mobile flood barriers make it possible for many people to protect themselves, instead of just hoping for help from outside. By mobilizing those who were helpless victims in previous disasters, to become resources in the next one, means that we will get a more flood resilient society. We are in fact changing the game of flood fighting!

This was the final point when NOAQ CEO Sigurd Melin gave his presentation as one of the key-note speaker at the SafeAttica conference in Athens last week.

NOAQ was not only invited to hold a key-note lecture at the conference, but also to show their mobile flood barrier, the NOAQ Boxwall. Sweden’s ambassador to Greece, Mr Johan Borgstam, visited the conference together with the embassy’s first secretary, Ms Amanda Gudmundsson, and were able to check the product hands on. They met with the NOAQ team, including as well Ann Blanche-Sahlqvist, CFO, and Douglas Hellström, sales manager. They were also able to check the product hands on.

SafeAttica was one in a row of regional disaster protection conferences, organized by the organization SafeGreece.

NOAQ Flood Protection is a company that strives to minimize its climate impact. One of the areas how we do this is to buy emission rights to offset global travel. We have bought emission rights for the years 2019-2022 with the right to emit 67 tons of carbon dioxide, according to EU directive 2003/87/EC for the trading period 2023. Earlier this spring we received our emission certificate. We are proud to present this certificate as one proof of our commitment to a sustainable future.

Together, we work to make a positive difference to our planet and communicate our commitment to sustainability to the world.

Inspiring Distributor Meeting in Hudiksvall and Näsviken last week with representatives from all around the world!

The team at NOAQ would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our valued distributors who participated in our recent meeting. Your dedication and insights have truly enriched our collaboration and the direction of our partnership. The lively discussions and exchange of ideas were invaluable, and we´re excited about the promising future that lies ahead as we work together towards our common goals – Changing the game of flood-fighting!

The diversity of perspectives and expertise in the room made the discussions truly enriching. Each insight shared has added immense value and will undoubtedly shape our strategies moving forward. Your commitment to our shared purpose to change the game of flood-fighting by being a certified distributor of NOAQ Flood Fighting System is what fuels our success, and we´re grateful for the passion and dedication each one of you brings to our partnership.

Thank you once again for your unwavering support and collaboration. Let’s continue this journey together, making a difference in the flood-fighting industry around the world!

Best regards, Team NOAQ

A delegation from Thailand is visiting Sweden these days to learn about Swedish water technology. The visit is a part of a larger project initiated by Business Sweden, and which has its origins in a conference in Bangkok last autumn, where Swedish companies had the opportunity to present themselves on site. “There is a pronounced interest in our mobile flood barriers in Thailand” says NOAQ’s sales manager Douglas Hellström. Now the delegates got to see the product in action at a demonstration close to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Wednesday Swedish Federation of Business Owners’ (“Företagarna”) CEO Günther Mårder visited Hudiksvall to meet the local business community, and to participate in an entrepreneurs’ lunch arranged by the federation’s local branch and Hudiksvall’s municipality. After the lunch he also visited NOAQ in Näsviken, to see the company and to hand over a plaque to Sigurd Melin and Ann Blanche-Sahlqvist, recently named Entrepreneurs of the Year in Hudiksvall.

Representatives from Företagarna visiting NOAQ. From left Andreas Hallberg, Johanna Pettersson, Sigurd Melin, Hjördis Elinsdotter, Eva Cooper, Günther Mårder, Ann Blanche-Sahlqvist, Lars Fridh.

Glysisvallen in Hudiksvall under water. Luckily the city bought some 200 meters of Boxwall from NOAQ a year ego, which meant they were now able to quickly erect a flood barrier at the site to redirect most of the water and limit the damage.

The summer’s worst rain hit our area during the night. Just some hours later we got a phone call from a road maintenance company who was struggling to keep a public road open, less than 10 minutes from our office. We collected all boxes we had at hand and built up a Boxwall along the road, to keep it passable and to protect the road embankment from erosion.

Not only huge tropical storms are causing water damage. Even comparatively tiny Swedish thunderstorms are worth protecting against. In Swedish village Stocka the Community House got its basement flooded by a heavy rainfall a couple of years ago. After a NOAQ Boxwall was acquired the building has been saved a number of times, most recently in July. The rainwater that previously flowed straight towards the building is now diverted around the gable of the building, where it can continue down the street without causing any damage.

Protect your property quickly and easily with NOAQ Boxwall! Our sales representative, Hans Hellström, held a successful demonstration for a diverse group from the emergency services and contractors in Näsviken the other week.

Learn more about modern solutions for flood protection and try it out yourself! We have a network of excellent distributors around the world.

When it comes to safeguarding your property against floods, you need the right tools. Building sandbag barriers is time-consuming and inefficient, but with NOAQ Boxwall, you’ll have a mobile and reusable solution. Construct flood barriers in no time when the threat of flooding looms and remove them just as quickly when the danger has passed.

We are thrilled to have been awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year in Hudiksvall! This prestigious accolade holds great significance for us and serves as a reminder of our ongoing responsibility to remain driven, innovative, and dedicated within our field. We look forward to the future and the exciting opportunities that await us.

Thank you once again to all of you for making this journey memorable and invaluable. We take pride in what we have accomplished together and eagerly anticipate continuing to make a difference.

We aspire to be a leading force in our industry and are delighted to share our success story with you. Our passion for innovation and commitment propels us forward.

Our success story continues, and we are excited to be a trusted partner for you within our domain. We are ready to take on new challenges and strive to make an even greater impact both locally and globally.

Link to swedish article at www.foretagarna.se!

Congratulations to all the nominees! Being nominated for “Entrepreneur of the Year, Hudiksvall” is an honor and recognition of hard work and dedication.

At NOAQ, we have an amazing team, loyal customers, and partners who have been part of the journey.

We all at NOAQ look forward to continued success and creating value for our community.

Together, we are stronger!

Photo: Flood Defense Group

A NOAQ temporary flood barrier was recently used in a spectacular manner to save the Navajo nation community of Chinle, Arizona from flooding. After nearly 3 days of effort to stop water from flowing through an earthen levee breach, NOAQ distributor Keith Anderson from Flood Defense Group, and his team of local Navajo Nation workers, were able to effectively deploy a NOAQ Boxwall upstream from the levee breach to redirect floodwaters that were actively flooding the community.

“We were able to redirect the water faster than two bulldozers, three bobcats and a front end loader who were trying to make a levee” Anderson reported in a text message the same day. “The town is still flooded, but we stopped the water going into the town after about three hours when everyone else has been working on it for three days. BAM!!!!”

“A NOAQ Boxwall is not intended to be put on loose sand in the middle of a fast flowing river” says Sigurd Melin, CEO of Swedish company NOAQ, “but somehow they managed to do it. An unexpected success story.”

Anderson later commented that ”The ability to quickly mobilize the NOAQ Boxwall flood barrier turned out to be a game changer. The Boxwall provided a unique capability of being able to hand carry it to the deployment location which was inaccessible by heavy machinery. The entire solution to stop flooding in this case, arrived in the back of a pick-up truck and was deployed within hours.  It was an impressive outcome and we were honored for the ability to provide flood barriers in Arizona to assist the Navajo Nation within a matter of hours” he said.

Video by: Keith Anderson, Flood Defense Group

The entire team at NOAQ is at a conference for two days to jointly create the way forward. During these days, we have limited availability on the phone and email. On June 1, everyone is back as usual.

The team at NOAQ is growing and Linda our HR manager hired “Säkerhetsutbildarna” who held a CPR training with everyone, Thursday, January 26. Besides the importance of being able to perform CPR correctly, it was a good team exercise for our team.

Many thanks to Kim Suorsa at “Säkerhetsutbildarna” for the interactive and informative workshop.

We are pleased to announce that the NOAQ Boxwall is included in the inaugural edition of the “Green Technology Book”, a new flagship digital-first publication produced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which is the UN’s specialized body for global intellectual property rights.

Launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on the 10^th of November, this first edition focuses on climate-change adaptation and showcases over 200 cutting-edge technology solutions that aim to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience against urgent climate impacts.

So far over 30’000 people have consulted the publication, making it a valuable source of knowledge and inspiration that puts innovation and technology at the forefront in the fight against climate change.

The “Green Technology Book” builds on the work of the WIPO Green Database, a marketplace that connects green technology providers with green technology seekers from around the world.

You can find NOAQ Boxwall listed on the WIPO Green Database here and download your copy of the WIPO Green Technology Book from here.

Last Thursday, NOAQ participated in a Swedish-Thai delegation on water issues, and not least of all issues on flood protection. The topic was highly topical because as recently as a month ago, Thailand was hit by nationwide floods. In Bangkok alone, the BMA (Bangkok Metropolitan Administration) assisted with 2.5 million sandbags for the construction of protective embankments.

The seminar was arranged by Business Sweden in Thailand with the participation of relevant Thai ministers and authorities. The BMA was represented by the Governor himself, Mr Chadchart Sittipunt, who was personally involved in the city’s flood defences. From the Swedish side, among others, Sweden’s ambassador Jon Åström Gröndahl.

NOAQ was represented by CEO Sigurd Melin, CFO Ann Blanche-Sahlqvist and sales manager Douglas Hellström, and by their side was three representatives from Thai Wiring, NOAQ’s Thai distributor.

“The delegates became very interested in our mobile flood barrier as they could see the possibilities that our technology brings. A NOAQ Boxwall weighs less than a hundredth of a corresponding dike made of sandbags and is therefore a hundred times faster to build. After the seminar, the Governor even asked for a copy of the slideshow we used in our presentation,” says Sigurd Melin.

South Africa has experienced severe flooding this year. In the spring, a large area around Durban in the eastern part of the country was hit by heavy downpours that led to widespread flooding, in which 448 people died and over 40,000 were displaced. It has been registered as one of the worst natural disasters in South Africa’s recent history. Now a South African entrepreneur has formed the company Flood Solutions to introduce the NOAQ Flood Fighting System to the country.

“Flood Solutions looks forward to its partnership with NOAQ in delivering NOAQ’s award-winning products to South Africa. Flood Solutions believes that South Africans would benefit from these products to protect their residences and businesses particularly in light of the increase in flooding occurrences in South Africa” – says Flood Solutions founder, Clinton Lodge.

For more information about Flood Solutions, visit their website here.

It is well known that India has major problems with floods. Now NOAQ has the opportunity to contribute with a solution, as we have appointed a distributor in the country. It is the company Frontier Flood Barriers India located in New Delhi that will add the NOAQ Flood Fighting System to its existing portfolio of flood protection products.

“We are excited to partner with NOAQ to bring the Boxwall flood barriers to the Indian market where the risk of damage due to floods has rapidly increased in the past few years. With changing climate and weather conditions, we see an urgency to offer quick and easy solutions to the customer. The fact that Boxwall can be setup during rising waters and can be stored away easily is a big advantage” – says Mr. Yuvraj Singh Ahuja, Managing Director at Frontier.

Frontier Flood Barriers India is a division of Frontier Polymers Pvt Ltd, one of India’s leading rotational moulding design and manufacturing companies, which also operates Frontier Traffic Safety India, a portal dedicated to road safety products.

For more information about Frontier Flood Barriers India, visit their company website here.

A NOAQ Boxpool is part of a new concept for fighting forest fires. At the drone conference UAS Forum in Swedish Västervik last week the company ACC Innovation demonstrated how their mighty Thunder Wasp could be used to water bomb forest fires. This drone can take one ton of water per sweep. And if there is no lake nearby the water could instead be collected from a NOAQ Boxpool. Here we go: https://www.accinnovation.se/news/uas-forum-2022

We are happy to annouce that the Flood Expo has named NOAQ Boxwall as one of the winners of the “Excellence in Innovation Award 2022”. The winners have been voted by a panel of industry experts, with the aim of recognising the most innovative products, services or technologies that are making a positive impact in flood protection. We are of course honoured that our products received this recognition, and see it as another sign that our technology is a “game changer”.

Read more about the award on the Flood Expo website.

The Flood Expo is Europe’s leading trade show for flood protection. Held annually at the NEC in Birmingham, NOAQ has been a loyal exhibitor since 2018. For this year’s show on 14 – 15 September, we have booked over 100 square meters of exhibition space as a headline “flood barrier zone” sponsor. This will give visitors the opportunity to build up for themselves Boxwalls and Boxpools.

Come and meet us at booth FD-B22 in hall 6.

We warmly welcome you!

For more information about the Flood Expo, visit their website here.

NOAQ Flood Protection AB in Näsviken, Sweden, has hired Douglas Hellström as the new sales manager. Douglas most recently came from a position as product development manager at the health-tech company MYoroface in Hudiksvall. Incidentally, Douglas grew up in Näsviken.

“NOAQ is currently on a very exciting journey that I simply felt I could not miss. I feel incredibly motivated to learn more about this interesting and growing market. 

I am now looking forward to settling into my new role and getting to know and building relationships with all the exciting NOAQ distributors spread across the globe” – says Douglas.

Now the higher NOAQ Boxwall, the BW102, has got its inward and outward corner boxes too. The corner boxes have the same standardized coupling mechanism as the straight boxes and can therefore be put together with each other in any combination. As a result, the taller Boxwall now has the same flexility as its older little sister, the BW52.

And in the same way as with the lower BW52, you can now also create meter-high temporary pools – or as we call them, “Boxpools”. With 12 inward corner boxes, you get a round Boxpool, but if you divide the circle and insert straight boxes, you can make it oblong or basically any shape or size required. Combined with a liner, the Boxpool can hold excess fire water, contaminated and hazardous liquids or dry material. In a final test before launch, such a Boxpool was assembled and filled with water.

“It is always really interesting and fun to see how such a light construction as a Boxwall can withstand the water pressure” – says Conny Löftsedt, product designer at NOAQ. Each of the 12 corner boxes weighs no more than 13 kilos, but in this Boxpool configuration they can hold in place no less than 9 tons of water.

Press release PDF

Tomorrow, Saturday 28 May, it’s time for this year’s edition of Delsbo Electric, a competition in which students from various universities and colleges decide who designed the most energy-efficient vehicle. The competition is therefore on rails, and take place on a part of Dellenbanan, a railway that also passes through Näsviken. The challenge is not only to win over the competitors, but also to beat the world record of 0.517 watt-hours per passenger kilometer, set during Delsbo Electric 2020.

Follow the competition live at https://www.facebook.com/delsboelectric.se?locale=sv_SE

Delsbo Electric is arranged by Dellenbanans Vänner, an association that purposefully works to have the line refurbished and reopened for commercial train traffic. NOAQ wholeheartedly supports this work, among other things by sponsoring Delsbo Electric.

For the first time, NOAQ will be exhibiting at Interschutz, the leading international trade fair for fire, rescue, and civil protection.

After a lengthy hiatus due to the pandemic, this year’s fair will take place in Hannover, Germany from Monday June 20 to Saturday June 25, and is expected to welcome exhibitors and visitors from over 50 countries.

Come visit us at stand A38 in hall 17 under civil protection, and see our meter high Boxwall, with the new components we have developed for this as well as other parts from our innovative and award-winning NOAQ Flood Fighting System.

We welcome you!

For more information about Interschutz and to book your tickets visit the trade fair website here.

In December, NOAQ Boxwall was voted the winner of the ”Quality Innovation Award 2021”. Those who voted were a judging committee within the Swedish Institute for Quality Development (SIQ). The award also included a nomination for the corresponding international competition, and now the Boxwall has won in the category ”Business innovations (small and medium sized enterprises)”.

The 15th international award ceremony was held digitally on April 26 by the Chinese Association for Quality. It was supposed to have taken place in Russia, but had now instead been moved to China. A total of 561 innovations participated in this year’s competition, a record high, and the best 25 across a wide range of categories were recognized with Awards or Prizes. 

”If it was unexpected that we would win the Swedish award, it was even more unexpected that we would also win the international one” says Sigurd Melin, Boxwall inventor and NOAQ CEO.

Quality Innovation Award is an annual event that has been arranged in Finland since 2007. Its purpose is to increase the amount and level of innovations.

Further information about QIA can be found here: www.qualityinnovation.org

We are pleased to announce that our Boxwall BW52 and BW102 is one of 10 nominated products for the award “Nordbygg’s gold medal for this year’s most innovative product novelty”. The nominated products have been selected from more than 100 products published in the Building Catalog’s news coverage during 2021. Awards are in collaboration between Nordbygg and Svensk Byggtjänst. The winner will be chosen by a jury in mid-April, with the prize awarded on April 28 at Nordbygg Trade Fair in Stockholm. 

Nordbygg’s Gold Medal for this year’s most innovative product novelty was established by Nordbygg, the magazine Byggindustrin and Svensk Byggtjänst and awarded for the first time in 2010. ”

Nordbygg is the Nordic region’s largest meeting place for the building and construction industry and gathers visitors every other year from the building sector in Sweden, but also from the rest of Scandinavia, The Baltic states and Europe.

NOAQ Flood Protection AB in Näsviken has increased its sales every year, and in 2021 the company saw another record year with sales up more than 30% from 24 million SEK to over 32 million SEK.

The export share is over 95% to around 40 countries. The explanation is that other countries have so much bigger problems with floods than we have in Sweden.

“We expect that sales will continue to increase significantly in the future. It is the sandbags that dominate, and we intend to change that. When people open their eyes to NOAQ’s products, no one will want to use inefficient sandbags again.

To cope with the increased sales, we hired several new employees last autumn, and we will need to recruit additional staff this year”, says NOAQ’s CEO Sigurd Melin.

Download press release here!

This is great news! We know that NOAQ Boxvall makes a difference for people and it is that knowledge that drives us forward. Becoming one of the winners of the “Quality Innovation Award 2021” is an honor.

The judges’ committee’s motivation: “NOAQ Boxvall is a unique innovation that can create great benefit for the rescue service and private individuals in the event of floods and storms. Given current climate change, this innovation should be of the utmost importance and be able to contribute to a high level of value creation in the event of accidents and natural disasters. By utilizing nature’s physical principles in a new way, this innovation contributes to significantly streamlining the construction of barriers in the event of floods and to dramatically make it easier for the staff who carry out such work.”

The Quality Innovation Award is an award that is presented each year to companies, organizations or individuals with innovations that have a clear connection to a conscious system in their work and a starting point from a clearly identified customer need. The award is a co-arrangement between quality institutes in several countries. Vinnova is SIQ’s partner in Sweden.

The Swedish award ceremony takes place at 14.00 on December 14 in Gothenburg.

For the third time NOAQ participated in the Flood Expo in Birmingham. At last we were able to again meet distributors, customers and exhibitors in person. The interest for our flood fighting system is constantly growing, especially after the floods in Europe this summer.

A brand new 15 meter long Boxwall BW102 met the visitors in our stand, along with our classic model, the BW52, both of them developed by ourselves during the last 25 years. We received many comments about how simple it was to set up a NOAQ Boxwall. We also showed a NOAQ Boxpool – a temporary basin for collecting and containing hazardous liquids. A Boxpool is assembled by using the same boxwall components, but in a different way. With the “Spill Response Expo” in the same hall, many visitors showed a great interest in this fast and versatile technique to safely take care of all kinds of fluids.

Thank you from the NOAQ team to everyone who participated in the Flood Expo, visitors as well as exhibitors. And extra fun to meet in person with both our UK and Czech distributors.

Not only Germany and Belgium were hit by severe flooding recently. In the Austrian city of Kufstein a street was converted to a canal by erecting boxwalls on both sides. This way the water masses could easily be led past the buildings, and down to the river.

The Zell am See airport in Austria needed to protect itself from flooding, and turned to Grampelhuber GmbH, distributor of the Swedish NOAQ Flood Fighting System. Now 600 meters of the “NOAQ Boxwall” have been delivered to the airport, and the 22 cases containing the components are waiting   on the runway to be brought into a hangar for storage.

In the event of a flood the components are positioned in a row to then become assembled to form a one meter high flood barrier. The weight of the components is only 15 kg apiece, which means that the entire operation can be performed with manual labour only. The alternative, a 600 meter long sandbag barrier, would require in total approximately 100 000 sandbags, and take several days to deploy. The NOAQ Boxwall can be erected to protect the airport buildings in some few hours with a limited workforce.

After a year of development we are now launching our new product – the Boxwall BW102. Like our previous model, the BW52, the new flood barrier is self-anchoring. Each “box” in the new barrier is automatically ballasted by up to 1.2 tons of water, but weighs itself only 15 kg (34 lbs). As a comparison a single box replaces 144 sandbags a 18 kg (40 lbs) in an sandbag barrier of equal height. Thanks to the low weight and the easy handling it is now possible for anyone to protect their own house, their own company or their own school by building an own flood barrier. Most often the half meter (20″) high BW52 will be enough, but with the BW102 we are now also able to hold back one meter (40″) deep water.

The NOAQ Boxwall is not only a simple mobile flood barrier – it is an entire system. Now we release a couple of new components, gables. The gables are connected to the outer ends of the barrier, which makes it easier to attach a boxwall against a building façade. By connecting a right hand gable to a left hand gable we also made it possible for a box wall to climb kerb stones or other vertical steps.

– We can contribute to the flood fighting efforts, says Thomas Brunzell, sales manager at NOAQ Flood Protection AB, as the flooding in west Sweden worsens. We have some 3,000 meters of NOAQ Boxwall in our stock in Ljungby, for immediate delivery.

The NOAQ Boxwall is a temporary flood barrier that can be built up by anybody, in a very short time and without any certain skills. Two persons can erect 100 meters in less than half an hour. Please visit our web site www.noaq.com for more information, user instructions etc.

Contact us on +46 650 30140 or +46 72 2478380.

In mid September a number of NOAQ distributors gathered in Hudiksvall for a two days distributors’ meeting. We used the opportunity to take them out on the scenic Dellen lakes to row a traditional church boat. Sitting in the same boat, trying to keep the same pace – this is the ultimate team building activity!

Even when large areas are flooded water depths are usually relatively moderate. This means a 50 cm high barrier, like the NOAQ Boxwall BW52, is most often sufficient. But not always. At some places a higher barrier is required. The NOAQ Tubewall TW100 is then an option, but we have now decided to also develop the Boxwall system for that same height. The new one meter high Boxwall “BW102” will preliminary be launched in March 2020.

Here is a presentation of the new product.

Self-anchoring mobile flood barriers may become real “gamechangers” in society’s response to flooding. This was the message in Sigurd Melin’s talk at the InterFLOOD Asia conference in Singapore in the end of March. Utilizing the NOAQ developed technique to let the own weight of the floodwaters anchor the barriers, the so-called “Bookend principle”, these can be made extremely light. And light barriers can be built up fast, with very little manpower. This means that almost everybody will be able to protect themselves and their property. Family members can protect their own house, the staff of a shop or a factory is able to protect their own company and the school children can save their own school. Those who were helpless victims in the past will become resources in future flood events. In the end we get a much more flood resilient society.

Read the entire speech here.

NOAQ’s Taiwan distributor ProYang has won a procurement of temporary flood barriers. It is the Yunlin county that has seen the possibility of using the NOAQ Boxwall against the floods that often follow in the wake of the typhoons that each year strike the country.

The order of just over 4 kilometers is the single largest in the company’s history.

However, Yunlin is only one of several counties with the same problem, so we expect that this order will be followed by more ones, says NOAQ’s CEO Sigurd Melin.

NOAQ is participating in InterFLOOD Asia in Singapore on 27 – 28 March. Welcome to our booth to see the new Boxwall BW52 and to discuss how to protect oneself from flooding using mobile flood barriers. More info about the trade fair at https://www.interflood.asia

NOAQ is now growing fast. Sales are increasing and the number of distributors has doubled during the last 12 months. NOAQ is now represented in more than 30 countries.

We have therefore recruited an International Sales Manager, Thomas Brunzell from Hudiksvall. Thomas comes directly from a corresponding position in Senseair AB in nearby Delsbo.

The development of our new Boxwall model BW52 is now finished, and the product is ready for delivery. The new box is built on the design of the current box BW50, and has the same damming capacity as that one, but there are a number of differences. Most obvious is that the new box is 44% longer than the old one, 90 cm instead of 62. This means that fewer boxes are needed to make a flood barrier, and that the speed of deployment increases. The BW52 is fully compatible with the BW50, which means our customers can continue to build on the same system. With the introduction of the new box we also get a much higher production capacity, something that is very important because of the rapidly growing sales.

New NOAQ distributors are added continuously. During the latest months we have signed distribution agreements with companies in China, South Korea, Holland, Czech Republic, Georgia and Mauritius. This means NOAQ is now represented in 30 countries.

NOAQ is back in Germany and Canada, but represented by new distributors. In Germany Fritz Raschel Feuerschutz GmbH, a company specialized in products for the emergency services, in Canada it is a brand new company. Wayne Fernandes needed to protect his own home and found NOAQ’s products on the web. When he realised we had no Canadian distributor he registered a new company, DAM-IT Canada, and now it is up running.

During the latest months NOAQ has signed distribution agreements with three more companies, covering five markets, Thai Wiring for Thailand and Cambodia, Zaxco for Malaysia and Singapore and Prescience Consulting for Trinidad och Tobago. Now the NOAQ products can be found in 25 countries.

NOAQ has now signed agreements with three more distributors, Yena Celik for Turkey, Aten (HK) for Hong Kong and Rescate y Emergencia (REMER) for Spain. All distributors and their contact information can be found under Distributors.

The spreading of the boxwall video on Internet during the summer has lead to an enormous interest for the NOAQ products. Requests for distribution has come from all over the world, and agreements have so far been signed with four companies, Growag in Switzerland, Ignidon in Belgium, Drammen Flomsikring in Norway and Sitrol in Chile.

A video showing how a NOAQ Boxwall can be used to divert water torrents in flash floods has spread virally on the Internet. It was published in May by NOAQ’s Australian distributor Bluemont and has since appeared in a number of new versions. One of them can be seen here. It has now been viewed more than 20 million times.

Now the new NOAQ Boxpool has been introduced to the Swedish fire chiefs, at the conference Brand 2017 in Linköping (“Brand” is Swedish for “Fire”). There was good interest and hopefully most Swedish fire services will get it. The Boxpool is in fact a vessel for the temporary containment of all kinds of liquids, but if you need to defend yourself against flooding the building material can be used for this purpose as well. The components for a 38 cubic metre boxpool can instead be assembled to form a 40 metre long temporary flood barrier.

NOAQ will participate in the conference “Brand 2017” in Linköping, Sweden, on 16 – 18 May. We will exhibit our two sibling products, the Boxwall and the Boxpool. Welcome to visit our stand!

For those planning to purchase or procure mobile flood barriers we have put together a check list. Which criteria are relevant, and what requirements can be set? View the list here.

NOAQ is now launching a new product, the Boxpool. It is a temporary basin for storing liquids of different kinds. It has been named Boxpool as it is a close relative to the Boxwall, our mobile flood barrier. A Boxpool is built up by the same components as the Boxwall, but instead of assembling them in a long row, they are connected to form a circle. Or whatever shape desired. The smallest Boxpool contains a little more than a cubic metre (35 cubic ft) while the biggest one can take 38 cubic metres (1,340 cubic ft). The Boxpool is primarily targeting the needs of the emergency services, for temporary disposal of contaminated water or hazardous liquids, but it can of course also be used as a temporary bathing pool, in any format.

Flood Resolutions LLC in Boise, Idaho, becomes NOAQ distributor in USA.

– We are extremely excited about the NOAQ product line! says Keith Anderson with Flood Resolutions. For starters, there is no product on the market like the Boxwall product. We are so excited about the ability to offer a flood barrier that can redirect water while it is moving without having to deal with fill material whether it be water or soil. That is an amazing product!

– Additionally, the simplicity and ease of constructing the Tubewall product make it one of the simplest and most economical products on the market! We are very excited to represent the NOAQ product line.

The 300 meter of Boxvall bought in December by the Danish fishing village of Reersø came into use immediately when a winter storm unexpectedly struck Denmark and southern Sweden. The purpose of the barrier is to secure the road to the village from storm surges. At the same time NOAQs Danish reseller Dansk Fugtstop was busy protecting a newly built villa in Solrød south of Copenhagen with Tubewalls and Boxwalls.

– We have so far almost exclusively exported our products, says Sigurd Melin on NOAQ, but after the flooding problems in southern Sweden it may be time to market our products also at home.

Photo: Jens Nielsen, TV-Kalundborg

Here comes 300 metres of boxwall on their way to Reersø in Denmark. Normally the boxes are delivered on pallets, but as manufacturing take place in the southernmost part of Sweden our Danish distributor Dansk Fugtstop decided to go to the factory himself and bring back all 500 boxes on a giant trailer.

NOAQ’s British distributor Flood Control International has got an order for a little more than 900 meter of boxwall from the supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. The boxes will be stored on different locations all over the country, to quickly be brought to shops when there is an imminent risk of flooding.

NOAQ has signed a distributorship agreement with Bratislava based ATECA. ATECA sells products for fire protection and rescue services and is representing a number of well known brands like Bauer, Lukas, Vetter and Flir. Read more on the company’s web site www.ateca.sk.

NOAQ has delivered 550 meters of flood barriers to Italy. It is the new university library in Trento that shall be protected against future flooding with a combination of tubewall and boxwall.

We have now had our second international Reseller Meeting, with representatives from Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Italy and Austria. In sunny and warm late summer weather, with no risk of flooding.

We are now launching a corner box for outward corners, as a complement to the inward corner box we introduced in spring. All our boxes fit one another, and with the right combination of outward, inward and straight boxes a continuous boxwall can be drawn through areas where the space is limited by obstacles like poles, walls and trees. The new outward corner box also makes it easier to encircle and protect small objects. Each corner box provides an angle of 30°, so by connecting 12 corner boxes, plus a number of straight ones, an area of any size and form can be protected.

NOAQ has signed a distributorship agreement with Vikoma International for the British market. This means we have now two UK distributors.

Vikoma has been manufacturing and supplying booms and oil spill equipment for nearly 50 years.

– Our focus has been on the oil spill market, however booms are multipurpose and have been used for many applications including flood, jelly fish protection and debris, says MD Karen Lucas.

– We are pleased to partner with NOAQ as distributor for their flood defense products which complement the Vikoma solutions.

– We select our business partners very carefully and are confident that NOAQ and Vikoma share common values and our commitment to quality, innovation and reliability, she says.

Vikoma has also been given the right to distribute NOAQ’s products on the Hungarian market.

NOAQ’s Australian distributor Bluemont showed a NOAQ boxwall at the 56th Floodplain Management Australia Conference in Nowra, NSW. They demonstrated the boxwall’s ability to divert fast flowing water in a flash flood.

At the Fire & Safety Trade Fair in Taipei 19-21 April NOAQ’s products were shown for the first time for a wider Taiwanese public. The interest was high as Taiwan is a country where hurricanes from the Pacific Ocean cause recurrent flooding.

NOAQ has developed a corner component for the Boxwall system – i.e. a “corner box”. It has been given a 30° angle and is intended for inward corners. To create a 90° angle three corner boxes are connected in a row. 12 corner boxes make a circle, which can be used to create a small pool.

Now our new website is up running. With responsive technology it adapts to any screen type or size. New colors and new design, but the same products. We also introduced the company on Facebook. Welcome to like us, follow us and share our postings with others!

From 1 January NOAQ take over the Swedish domestic market from previous reseller Saveco, as the distributorship agreement runs out.

– We want to have a direct contact with the wet reality, says CEO Sigurd Melin, and by taking care of the Swedish customers ourselves, and solve their problems, we will also get a feedback that will help us in our development work. The export sales, accounting for more than 95% of our turnover, is made through national distributors, which means we most often do not have the opportunity to have a direct contact with the end users.

Slovenian TIERA/Vodastop becomes distributor för NOAQ in Slovenia and Croatia. The area suffers from recurrent flood problems, especially along the river Sava, which runs through both countries..

NOAQ has signed a distributorship agreement for the British market with Flood Control International in Tavistock, Devon. Flood Control International are already big in ”demountable” flood barriers, but will now be able to widen their portfolio to also include the best ”freestanding” flood barriers, the tubewall and the boxwall from NOAQ.