There’s no better way to describe them; The Netherlands is one of the lowest-lying
countries in the world.
And believe me when I say, these are lowlands.
The average elevation is only 30 meters and about a quarter of Dutch territory is below
sea level.
This also makes the Netherlands one of the countries most under threat from possible
rising sea levels caused by global warming.
But wait, it’s not the most threatened country.
As many of you will know, the Maldives is most at risk with an average altitude of just
two meters.
Which is incredible, especially if we consider that despite being a flat island in the middle
of the ocean, its capital, Malé, is one of the most densely populated cities on the entire
planet.
Having said that, we’ll leave the Maldives for another occasion because in this video
we’ll focus on the Netherlands and some of the most ominous predictions that it currently
faces.
(CHART)
You may have seen images like the one appearing now on your screen.
Images, models and maps showing how most of the territory of the Netherlands – including
its capital, Amsterdam, will disappear under the sea as a result of the melting of the
polar ice caps.
Logically it would follow that such an event would eventually force the Dutch to emigrate
en masse to neighbouring countries like Germany.
Because according to scientific estimates, the sea level could rise between 30 to 77
centimeters by the year 2100.
The worst case scenarios predict rises of 200 centimeters, two meters.
And, even though that may not sound very much, those centimetres really count.
Not only because a rise in the sea level would flood many lands as low-lying as the Netherlands,
but also because it would multiply the flood damage, for example causing floods and river
overflows when storms occur.
This, of course, would translate into a loss of human lives, destroyed crops and cities,
flooded land, etc., etc.
However, just a second, because in this video we’re going to show you how the inhabitants
of the Netherlands are already working to face this gigantic challenge: dealing with
the rising sea level.
It’s a problem for which they only really have two options.
No more, no less.
The first is to fight the water, building higher levees, larger and more resistant dams
and more powerful containment infrastructure.
The second option is to embrace their neighbor, water, and try to control and live with it.
And we should note, we’re talking about a country with a lot of experience in the
matter.
People living on the land that we currently know as The Netherlands have been suffering
the effects of huge floods that periodically ended the lives of dozens to tens of thousands
of people for centuries, even before the Middle Ages.
Take the so-called Santa Lucia flood of 1287 that took the lives of between 50,000 and
80,000 people.
And you know what?
Even back then they already had containment dams, a hydraulic achievement that was quite
advanced for the time.
We’re talking more than 700 years ago.
So, as you can see, this is a population that is very used to living with and fighting against
water.
But now the big questions that crop up are...
How on earth are the Dutch preparing for the future?
Are they fighting a losing battle?
Can the Netherlands even survive global warming if the poles partially melt and raise the
sea level?
Listen up.
(NATURAL RISK OR HUMAN RISK?)
So it’s no surprise.
Obviously, rising sea levels are a great risk for the Netherlands and much of the world.
And it’s true that if there’s one thing that characterizes human beings, it’s their
ability to adapt, face adversity and overcome virtually any risk that nature throws at them.
Right now, this threat is on the table.
So…
What exactly is the risk we are talking about right now?
Is the sea the risk or are we, humans, the real risk?
Look, this map shows all the areas that the Netherlands has reclaimed from the sea since
the fourteenth century.
As you can see, the Dutch have been swallowing areas of the sea for centuries, building cities
and planting crops in areas with a high risk of flooding, areas that were once under water
and could well be again one day.
After all, the sea has been redrawing the map for millions and millions of years.
The waters have advanced and receded, until we got more or less the map that we know today,
which was completed about 6,000 years ago.
In geological time, 6,000 years was practically the day before yesterday.
However, now, the problem emerges because the pace of natural warming has accelerated
due to human activity.
That’s precisely what seems to be happening.
In order to understand the worldwide situation and specifically that of the Netherlands better,
we can say that we’re facing two major challenges, and the truth is that both are fundamentally
man-made.
The first challenge is to slow global warming to levels as close as possible to natural
warming.
And the second, to avoid occupying high-risk spaces such as polders; which are lands reclaimed
from the sea, or flood plains near rivers, which are areas susceptible to natural floods.
Let me ask you a question, if I build my house in the flood zone next to a river and, one
day, a flood comes and it destroys my house, is it my fault or is it the fault of the river
and the flood?
Perhaps, from a general point of view, many of us would blame the river, but in the Netherlands
they have a deep-rooted culture of coexistence with water.
To some extent, they know that they are the guests.
That is, that they occupy a place that the sea used to occupy and in which they need
to continue coexisting.
And that’s what makes the Dutch different, unique but...
Do you want some concrete examples?
Well...
Let’s take a look.
(THE BATTLE AGAINST THE SEA, STRATEGY CHANGE?)
If the inhabitants of these lowlands have learned anything over the years, it’s that
fighting against the sea is a losing battle.
A certain failure.
Let me explain.
The strategy of protecting themselves through dikes, dune barriers, dams and reservoirs
to control rising sea levels has been used for centuries, particularly during the twentieth
century.
The greatest example of this public strategy of protection against the sea was the Delta
Works project, developed after the great flood of 1953 that killed almost 2,000 people in
a single night.
The project was completed in 1997, with the construction of Maeslantkering, a gigantic
barrier near Rotterdam with twin gates as large as two Eiffel towers that rotate on
tracks to seal the waterway.
They take two hours to close.
Over the past two decades, the Maeslantkering barrier gates have not yet been used to contain
any massive flooding, but the Netherlands pushed the Delta Plan forward with the aim
of creating effective protection for at least 200 years.
But hold on a minute, because we’re overlooking something.
The Delta Plan is a project from the last century and the truth is that over the last
decades knowledge about rising sea levels and their effects has increased a lot.
That’s exactly why the Netherlands has now changed its perspective.
You see, after Delta Works, the Dutch have switched from planning for more and more and
higher levees, to planning for controlled floods.
Yes, you heard that right.
Controlled flooding.
In fact, very recently, in March 2019, they finished construction on the Room for the
River project, a huge project with a budget of about 3 billion dollars.
A project that has sought to expand river floodplains where there’s a high overflow
risk.
Basically, it involves diverting flood waters to controlled areas.
Sounds sensible, right?
(AUDIO: "If the water comes in, from the rivers or the sea, we can evacuate maybe 15 out of
100 people.
So evacuation isn’t an option.
We can escape only into high buildings.
We have no choice.
We must learn to live with water.”
- Ahmed Aboutaleb, Mayor of Rotterdam)
Well, one of the best examples we can find of this plan is Eendragtspolder, a fundamentally
agricultural polder in which they’ve created a large aquatic recreation area.
However, as you can imagine, leisure isn’t the main objective of this huge body of water
and canals, rather it’s designed to absorb and contain water during floods and large
storms.
It is close to Rotterdam and also to the lowest point in the Netherlands, so it’s one of
the areas most likely to flood in the entire country.
This kind of reservoir is designed to prevent the spread of water during the overflows of
the Rhine River, which is expected to happen periodically, once every ten years.
But don’t think that’s the end of it, because apart from the new polders that are
capable of absorbing floods, the Dutch government’s policies and those of its cities go much further.
Dutch engineers have been preparing the country for decades, keeping a worst-case scenario
in mind and always thinking long-term.
We’re talking 100, 200 or even 1,000 years.
That’s a great way to prepare.
In Rotterdam, one of the cities with the highest risk of flooding, they are creating a large
number of public spaces to evacuate water and thus help prevent a lot of damage.
For example, there’s the creation of water squares such as Benthemplein, an area that
in case of floods or storms turns the lower areas of the enclosure, which usually hold
leisure and sports facilities, into gigantic swimming pools that can hold up to 1.7 million
liters of water.
All that water that would’ve caused enormous damage and losses to the surrounding areas,
drains gradually to avoid mass flooding.
But wait, because there’s more.
Garages, yes, yes, even garages are being designed as water tanks in case of emergency.
The fundamental idea in Rotterdam and other vulnerable cities is to create as many controlled
water tanks as possible to safeguard homes and major infrastructure.
That is, to allow flooding, but to control it.
And all this will greatly reduce economic costs after a natural disaster or major weather
event.
And the best part is that both citizens and politicians share this vision.
(AUDIO: “We can’t just keep building higher levees, because we will end up living behind
10-meter walls.
We need to give the rivers more places to flow.
Protection against climate change is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain,
and the chain in our case includes not just the big gates and dams at the sea but a whole
philosophy of spatial planning, crisis management, children’s education, online apps and public
spaces.”
- Harold van Waveren, Dutch government advisor)
And we are still not done.
In what may be somewhat more controversial, the government is expropriating agricultural
land from farmers to create controlled flood zones.
They’re doing this without asking or searching for volunteers.
Farmers just have to leave.
Safety above all, at least that's what they say.
However, many of these farmers are seeing an opportunity to change, to create something
new and to adapt to a future with more water in the Netherlands.
Ok, true, with the compensation money, some farmers have chosen to retire, but there are
other much more curious reinvention examples.
Such as the invention of floating farms.
Yes, you heard it right.
Floating farms.
Listen up.
With financial support from the city of Rotterdam, the Beladon company has created the first
floating dairy farm.
At the moment, it’s only a two million euro prototype for 40 cows that could produce half
a million liters of milk per year.
And perhaps if the costs were lower, inventions such as this would allow the Netherlands to
alleviate some of the problems that the elimination of agricultural land for the benefit of waterways
can pose for its economy.
They are, after all, the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products, second
only to the United States, with more than 90 billion euros in exports in 2018.
As you may have gathered from this video, the Dutch won’t give up easily.
They have always lived side by side with water, and it seems that they’ll continue to do
so for generations.
That’s why they’ve been adapting for the worst-case scenarios for decades: a sea level
rise of up to 77 centimeters or even more by 2100.
Nor should we be surprised by the huge capacity for adaptation that human beings have shown
when faced with all kinds of scenarios.
The point is that it doesn’t look like the Netherlands will disappear underwater.
At least not in the coming decades, don't you think?
The apocalyptic scenarios will only occur if the Dutch stand still for decades or centuries
without acting.
And today, here, on VisualPolitik, we’ve shown you that that’s simply not the case.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean that global warming isn’t a challenge, a challenge that
we all have to address and overcome.
Like so many others.
However, what we have wanted to show in this video is how some societies have already begun
to prepare for tomorrow's world and how perhaps looking for solutions is better than getting
carried away with sensationalism, don't you think?
But now it's your turn.
The Netherlands will be with us for a while, that seems clear.
But...
Do you think the time will come when not even the most advanced technologies will allow
the Dutch to live in their country?
And in your country’s case, how do you think government and society would respond to such
a challenge?
Leave your answer in the comments.
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