Flood protection is often a matter of time. It takes considerable time to build dikes out of sandbags, in some cases so much time that one should have had to start working even before the raining... Those who already have first hand experience from this laborious work will not take the risk of doing it unnecessarily, but waits at least until flood warnings are issued by media. And then it could already be to late to start.

We have developed a temporary flood barrier that is so quickly erected that you can wait until you know for sure that it will be needed. Furthermore, you don´t have to have an army of your own, to carry sandbags. As the regular army probably is already preoccupied elsewhere you will be confidently aware that you can manage the situation yourself. A NOAQ Tube Wall weighs less than half a percent of a correspondent sandbag barrier, and is easily handled by 2 - 4 people. A Tube Wall works as good on lawns and meadows as on gravel roads and asphalt, and does not require any preparations or abutments. Instead it utilizes the weight of the flood water for anchoring.

A NOAQ Tube Wall consists of airfilled tubes of reinforced plastic, interconnected by ordinary zips to form a chain. Each tube has a ”skirt” attached alongside the tube, on the ”flood side”. When water start rising the skirt is pressed firmly towards the ground, hereby anchoring the tube. We call it ”The Bookend Principle”, as it works in the same way as an ordinary bookend. The bookend is supporting the books, but is in its turn kept in place because of the heavy books standing on it. Read more about the technique in the presentation leaflet (PDF). You may also use our check list (PDF) to see if and how a Tube Wall could be used in your case.

The Tube Wall was developed in Sweden with the support of the Swedish Rescue Services Agency and has been used succesfully during flood events. It has also been awarded the SKAPA prize, yearly distributed to three Swedish top inventions. In December 2002 it also won first prize in BBC´s live broadcasted ”Best Inventions” show.