How the Netherlands Deal with the Rising Concern of Flooding

How the Netherlands Deal with the Rising Concern of Flooding Narrator: The Netherlands is a country claimed from water. Now it seems the water wants it back. Rising sea levels and overflowing rivers are making this low lying nation increasingly vulnerable to serious floods. Tineke Huizinga: When there is no land, there is no country. There is no Netherlands. Louise Fresco: It’s a matter of saying let’s just abandon the country. We cannot do that. Narrator: Will the Dutch be able to keep the water at bay or must they now contemplate to the previously unthinkable, allowing the water in? Male: We shouldn’t any longer fight against the water, but we use it and give way to it. Fons Bergmans: Just let it come. We can’t hold it back anyway and if he comes, we’ll try to make the best of it. Narrator: Fons Bergmans has a farm in Nema Street on the Dutch-Belgian border. It has been in his family for generations. The farm is on an island in the River Maas or Meuse, one of countries five major rivers. In 1993, heavy rainfall caused the river to flood, the results were devastating. Fons Bergmans: Just before Christmas, the Maas flooded when the Christmas tree was out. The house was full of fast running water swirling about. In one day, the water reached up to here about 60 centimeters. That’s how high the water came too in the house. Narrator: The flood reached havoc on the whole Limburg region, destroying homes and livelihoods and cutting of communities for over a week. Fons Bergmans: And sometimes we saw just outside a hope of craft passing by. The Christmas tree was floating. We had a terrible time. We spent eight days like that. It’s the kind of experience you couldn’t imagine, and we hope it will never happen again. Narrator: Without an extensive flood defense, the Dutch can’t exist. Two- thirds of the population lives below sea level. For hundreds of years they relied solely on defensive walls or dikes to defend themselves from flooding. Raised embankments crisscrossed the country, and windmills so identifiable with the Dutch landscape. We’ll not just for making flour but for pumping water from the land. Then in 1953, the North Sea flood caused destruction across northern Europe especially in the Netherlands, close to 2000 people died. It was obvious that seawalls and dykes were not enough. Over the next three decades the Dutch constructed huge barriers to protect their coastal cities. But 50 years later, the possible impacts of climate change have put the country’s flood defenses back under the spotlight. Scientist Louise Fresco has advised the Dutch government on preparing for the future. Louise Fresco: There are two main threats to the Netherlands. One is the rising sea level, and the other threat is that as a result of major discharge through the rivers due to high rainfall in the future we will have more water coming into the country and the combination of rising sea level and water from the rivers of course poses a very clear and present of threat. About 30% of the dikes and protections are not entirely up to the standards that we actually agreed on in the past. So we need to enhance the protection, and the best way to do that of course is to build upon the existing system and adds additional protective measures where they are necessary.