The Netherlands has a love/ hate relationship with water. The word ‘Netherlands’ refers to the country’s low land and flat geography, it literally means lower countries. With almost a quarter of the country below sea level, this makes the Netherlands extremely vulnerable to flooding. Especially, because the most densely populated and most economic important parts are under sea level.

Map of areas of the Netherlands under sea level

                     (Hans van der Maarel)

The problem gets worse because climate change is raising the sea levels. The country has been fighting back water for more than 1000 years. Since then, farmers built dykes and windmills were pumping away the redundant amount of water. Therefore, the Dutch are experts on water management. Universities are producing some of the world’s best water engineers and managers and it is sharing its experience with the rest of the world. The Dutch environment has advised on water management for China, Africa, Australia and, Singapore. The Dutch are extremely proud of their expertise on water management. Which makes sense, because eight million people depend on it because they live below sea level.

However, the Dutch water management has not always been this flawless. In 1953, a big part of the country faced a terrible flood, the Dutch call this flood the ‘Watersnoodramp’. This flood caused enormous damage and 1800 casualties. It is one of the biggest natural disasters the country has ever had, and the experts didn’t see it coming.

Flooded parts of the Netherlands

(Rijkswaterstaat)

After this flood, the delta program was started, this resulted in a lot of flood protection on the coast. A part of the water protection is the ‘Room for the river project’, which gives the rivers extra space when there are times of extreme rain.