Dear reader,
The Dutch like to say that God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands.
They have good reason to say this. According to Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, 17% of Dutch land area is land that has been reclaimed either from the sea or from lakes. Twenty-six percent of the Netherlands is below sea level, and the number rises to 50% if you add land that is no higher than one meter above sea level.
Before the Middle Ages, the Dutch were pretty much subject to the vagaries of weather and sea. In my part of the country, this led to the building of wierden or terpen: low hills of dirt and sand, generally one per village, on which the village church stood. When I say “hill,” I really mean a low rise, maybe one or two meters above the surrounding farmland. That rise was enough, usually, to save the villagers when the land flooded.
Reclaimed land (polders)
However, flooding like that could lead to widespread starvation if crops were destroyed. By the Middle Ages, villages were building dikes to protect their land from flooding. The next step, then, was obvious: build a dike at the edge of a shallow body of water or along the shoreline, pump the water out, wait for the rain to wash the salt out of the soil and, voilà! New land to farm!
This reclaimed land is called a polder, and we have a lot of polders in this country!
You know the pretty rows of windmills at the Kinderdijk UNESCO site? They’re an example of the pumps that moved water from low-lying land and then kept that land dry as needed.
Nowadays other forms of power are used to operate the pumps, though traditional windmills are still ready as backup.
Massive water-control projects
The Dutch have carried out some truly massive projects to keep us all safe from flooding. The Afsluitdijk, completed in 1932, is a 32-kilometer-long dike (about 20 miles) across the entrance to what used to be the Zuiderzee (which means “southern sea”). Building it turned the Zuiderzee into a freshwater lake, now called the Ijsselmeer. They’re now working on reinforcing the Afsluitdijk to deal with heavier storms and higher sea levels.
In 1953 a huge storm surge and flood killed almost 2000 people in the Netherlands, mostly in the southern province of Zeeland. This led to another huge project called the Delta Works, which took more than 40 years to complete. It’s a series of dikes, sluices, locks, and storm surge barriers along the western edge of the country. Some of the barriers stay put, while others are open most of the time, allowing water and ships to move freely. But if the water rises in a storm, the barriers can be closed.
Building a province
What really amazes me is the development of Flevoland. This is an entire province that was built on land reclaimed from the Ijsselmeer after the Afsluitdijk was built. New land could provide more farmland and also serve as a suburb of Amsterdam. Don’t have enough land: just build a new province!
Exporting expertise
The Dutch are justifiably proud of their hydraulic engineering prowess, and these days they export their knowledge all over the world.
Do you need a sunken submarine (the Kursk) retrieved from the ocean floor? Call the Dutch! (A company called Mammoet.)
Want to build a series of islands shaped like a palm tree (Palm Jumeirah in Dubai)? Call the Dutch! (Two companies: Boskalis and Royal Van Oord.)
Is an extremely large ship blocking the Suez Canal? Call the Dutch! (Boskalis, again, though they didn’t end up needing to carry out drastic measures.) The Dutch are the experts.
When I talk to Dutch people about this, there’s a certain smugness and self-satisfaction that amuses me. At the same time, it’s wonderful that we can a) live below sea level and b) be completely sure that it’s safe.
Doublethink
Perhaps it’s a form of doublethink. The average elevation of the Netherlands is 30 meters (98 feet), according to the CIA World Factbook. Its lowest point is 7 meters below sea level. Yet no one seems at all concerned about global sea level rise, at least in terms of how it’ll affect the Netherlands. They’ve dealt with it before, and they’ll deal with it again.
It kind of reminds me of the attitude of native Californians about earthquakes … which doesn’t instill confidence, does it? Yet I think in the case of the Dutch, it’s justified. They know what they’re doing.
If this story of water control in the Netherlands interests you, watch this video by BritMonkey, which covers it really well, and the visuals help to understand the sheer size of the big water control projects.
Don’t forget to:
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and c) check out my travel blog, Rachel’s Ruminations, which covers the Netherlands but also lots of other places.
Until next week!
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Rachel