LONDON — The Netherlands’ unique approach to water management can provide some key flood preparedness lessons for countries around the world, experts have told CNBC, particularly since the deepening climate emergency is likely to make extreme rain events more common.
It comes shortly after intense rainfall and flooding wreaked devastation across parts of western Europe earlier this month.
Germany and Belgium were the worst-hit countries by the extreme rainfall on July 14 and July 15, with authorities reporting more than 200 people to have died as floods engulfed entire villages. Parts of Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also badly affected.
Yet, while the Meuse River — which flows through France, Belgium and the Netherlands — reached record high water levels, the scale of destruction in the Netherlands was not the same as seen elsewhere.
Flood experts told CNBC that while there are several reasons that make it difficult to directly compare the destruction seen in the Netherlands with other countries in western Europe, decades of investment into flood preparedness certainly helped to limit the damage.
“It was a terrible disaster. People lost their lives and people lost friends and families, so there is nothing to brag about. The Netherlands did not see the massive rain Germany saw or Belgium saw,” Henk Ovink, a flood expert and the Netherlands’ special envoy for international water affairs, told CNBC via telephone.
One key reason the Netherlands was able to cope with a large amount of water moving through its river system during the recent flooding disaster was that “a lot of effort” and investment had gone into improving the country’s flood defense in recent years, Ovink said.
These measures included the widening and deepening of river channels as part of the government’s so-called “Room for the River” policy, a high level of protection for dams, dikes and levees and evacuation schemes to make sure that people can be moved to safe places.
“I don’t want to compare [to other countries], but if I look at the Netherlands, our efforts helped and worked. At the same time, as always with these challenges that our society faces, we have to use this disaster again as a stepping stone or a learning moment,” Ovink said.
“A disaster is like an X-ray. It shows the system’s vulnerability and shows all these interdependencies in the water and urban and infrastructure and societal systems. If you really take a closer look then you can learn how to prepare better for future challenges. I think that is now the burden but also the opportunity,” he added.
A long history of water management
Reflecting on the floods seen in Europe in recent weeks, Ovink proposed three ways for countries to improve flood preparedness: “First, take climate change into account in everything you do,” he said, referring to a key aim of the Paris Agreement to limit a rise in the Earth’s temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“Second, with every investment you put in place, think about nature’s capacity to help build resiliency and adaptive capacity. And third, do this with all stakeholders, from the community level up.”
The Netherlands has a long history of water management, though researchers cite the devastating North Sea flood of 1953 as a pivotal moment for the country. The flood caused widespread damage and killed 1,835 people nationwide. It prompted the construction of the Delta Works, the world’s largest flood protection system, in the southwestern part of the country.
