Water management specialists have repeatedly warned the Netherlands about the expected rise in sea levels, urging the country to take this reality into account now.
Peter Glas, the “Delta Commissioner” [chargé de diriger le programme de valorisation et de lutte contre la submersion du delta des Pays-Bas]had already challenged the government on this subject last year in a report on sea level rise. This also dealt with the increasingly difficult flow of river water and its salinization, and the effects of these phenomena on the maritime territories along the outer dykes and the floodplains. “The economic relevance of any new investment in these areas should be assessed today, at the risk of paying a high price later”, he warned.
Same story on the side of scientists: “Our leaders must take into account today the measures that will be necessary in fifty or a hundred years, whether it is our ‘historic’ protection against the waters or the partial retreat of the Netherlands to the east”, underlined the specialist in water management Marjolijn Haasnoot, following the publication of a report by the Deltares institute for which she works. Refusing, however, to give in to alarmism, she recalled that water control in the Netherlands was “very good”, but that the country had to show “d’anticipation” pour “staying at this level of excellence”.
Need space
“We have studied all the possible scenarios to counter the rise in sea level, continues the specialist. In any case, it appears that we need space to widen the rivers, to raise dykes, to store volumes of water in order to regulate the flows. This space, we must foresee it now. And in any case, we will also need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from peatlands as much as possible in order to meet climate goals.” The authorities in charge of water management in the Netherlands are all of the same opinion: “Let us plan the necessary space today, in particular for future work to reinforce the dykes”said a spokesperson.
These warnings sometimes arouse astonishment, sometimes concern, sometimes the irritation of a fringe “dissident” water specialists, who remain convinced that the Netherlands does not have to prepare for these distant scenarios. Advocating a different approach, they prefer to stick to what the country has been doing for centuries: contain the waters and prevent them from overwhelming the land by building dykes, large hydraulic works and pumps.
“They try to scare us”denounces Dick Butijn, an engineer who pleads for the development of a second coastline off the existing coast.
“Let’s not give in to catastrophism”tempers, for his part, Bas Jonkman, professor