Going Dutch to conquer rising seas with the right defence
The Netherlands, which prides itself as the ‘safest delta’ on the planet, exports its expertise around the world
Had nature been left to take its course much of the Netherlands would be a muddy swamp and the tiny coastal nation would never have risen to be the Eurozone’s fifth largest economy.
More than half of the country’s 17 million people live in low-lying at risk areas, but thanks to hard work, perseverance and a lot of technical savvy they snuggle safely behind an ingenious network of 17,500 kilometres of dykes, dunes and barrages.
After struggling against the seas for hundreds of years, the Netherlands prides itself on being the “safest delta” on the planet and now exports its expertise around the world.
As water levels rise thanks to climate change and turbulent weather patterns unleash fierce storms, Dutch know-how in protecting low-lying areas has turned the country into the leader in its field.
“It’s thanks to our history,” Infrastructure Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen said. “We have been battling for centuries to hold back the seas.”
Necessity
Just like the legend of the boy who stuck his finger in crumbling dyke, necessity has been the mother of invention.
Dutch companies now account for some 40 per cent of the global dredging business open to international competition. “Water is not so much a threat, but an asset. It can bridge economy and ecology,” said Henk Ovink, the country’s special representative on water issues.
More than 70 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product is produced on land at risk of flooding. Amsterdam’s sprawling Schiphol airport — the fifth busiest in Europe — should by rights be a playground for fish.
The turning point for the Netherlands came in 1953 when devastating floods swept in from the North Sea killing 1,835 people and leaving 72,000 homeless in the southwest.
Traumatised and shocked, the Dutch decided the only way forward was to improve their sea defences. “Now Holland’s level of protection is 100 to a 1,000 times better than most other countries,” said Bart Schultz, a researcher at the Unesco-IHE Institute for Water Education based in Delft.
The Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier is a gargantuan construction stretching an impressive 9 kilometres between the southern islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and NoordBeveland. Thanks to a series of massive sluice gates it can completely close off the mouth of the estuary, preventing the unpredictable North Sea from surging through.
A huge man-made sand bank, bigger than 200 football fields, was inaugurated in December 2011 just south of The Hague.