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 nation’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 17,500km 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 exports its expertise around the world.
As water levels rise and storms rage, Dutch know-how in protecting low-lying areas has turned the nation into the leader in its field.
“It’s thanks to our history, Dutch Minister of Infrastructure Melanie Schultz van Haegen said. “We have been battling for centuries to hold back the seas.”
Just like the legend of the boy who stuck his finger in crumbling dyke, necessity has been the mother of invention.
Dutch companies account for about 40 percent 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,” Dutch Special Envoy for International Water Affairs Henk Ovink said.
More than 70 percent of the nation’s GDP 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.
Traumatized and shocked, the Dutch decided the only way forward was to improve their sea defenses.
“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 Institute for Water Education based in Delft.
The Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier is a gargantuan construction stretching an impressive 9km between the southern islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland. 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.
Simpler solutions also work. A huge, artificial sand bank, bigger than 200 soccer fields, was inaugurated in December 2011 just south of The Hague.
It juts out into the sea from the beach and, swept by the winds and tides, protects the beautiful dunes behind from erosion.
The UN’s Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change says the oceans rose about 19cm from 1901 to 2010.
The agency predicts that sea levels will now rise between 26cm and 82cm by 2100 compared with the end of the 20th century.
The world’s burgeoning and resource-rich delta zones, where about 10 percent of the world’s population lives, are at the greatest risk, according to the Delta Alliance organization.
It is in these areas that Dutch technology has proved so valuable. About 2,500 Dutch firms work in the water industry, doing about 17 billion euros (US$18.7 billion) of business every year, Netherlands Water Partnership director Lennart Silvis said.
After Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 2005, the Netherlands played a huge role in reconstructing the city’s sea defenses.
That led to an increased cooperation with the US, and when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in 2012, Dutch help was again called upon.
“There is often huge interest after a disaster, but we would like to see greater preventative work, which will help protect people in the long term,” Van Haegen said.
In Southeast Asia, Dutch experts have worked to shore up defenses from Jakarta to the Mekong Delta.
“Obviously we need to protect against the water, but there are other aspects of urban planning, such as purification and access to drinking water, or even how to build roads,” Silvis said.
Learning to live with the water has also spurred creative thinking.
Dutch experts are researching how to farm with saltwater or how to produce energy by mixing salt and fresh water.
From building floating platforms off the Philippines to restoring wetlands areas in Kenya and Uganda, it seems there are no limits.
There is even a little room for some luxury when it comes to mastering the seas. Sand islands shaped into a palm-tree and a network of islands formed like a map of the world off Dubai are the work of the Dutch international dredging company Van Oord.
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