Netherlands must double water spending, delta commissioner warns

The Netherlands must at least double what it spends on keeping the sea out and fresh water in, and even then it will not be able to prevent all the damage from climate change, delta commissioner Co Verdaas said on Monday.

Spending on flood defences, fresh water and climate-proofing currently amounts to about 1% of GDP, or just over €11 billion a year, and needs to rise to at least 2%, broadcaster NOS reported. His statements come ahead of the national budget day next week.

Verdaas gave a six-yearly review of the national delta programme to infrastructure minister Vincent Karremans. Carrying on as before “is not an option”, the infrastructure ministry said in a statement. The review stressed that the country is in “the next chapter of our water tradition.”

“We are world-renowned for our water management,” Verdaas said. “But this summer’s extremes have once again rubbed our noses in the facts. We are not going to make it with technology alone,” Verdaas said.

Pumps and salt
The review calls for billions of euros in new pumps at IJmuiden and, later, on the Afsluitdijk, so that river water can still be pushed out to sea as levels rise. NOS puts the IJmuiden works alone at around €2 billion. The pumping station protects some 4 million people, as well as Schiphol.

Preparations should also start now on new “Delta Works” to replace the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier near Rotterdam, and the IJsselmeer should be allowed to hold more water so it can keep supplying half the country in dry summers.

But technical fixes will not be enough, Verdaas said. Land use will have to change in the most vulnerable areas, including the bulb-growing Bollenstreek, the sandy soils of the east and south, the Noord-Holland coast and parts of Friesland and Groningen, where salt water is creeping in and farmers may have to change the crops they grow.

Households should expect “wet feet and flooded cellars” more often, the statement says, and hospitals and power installations will need extra protection from cloudbursts.

The findings follow a summer in which the Rhine fell to its lowest level in 80 years and the government formally declared a water shortage. The full Deltaprogramma 2027, with the revised strategy, is published on Prinsjesdag, September 15, alongside the budget.