Advice About Dutch Water Defence

Water management is the main emphasis: protection against floods and security of the availability of drinking water. This prefents victims and social disorder, damage to the economy, landscape, nature, culture and reputation.

The committee prefers to combine developments protecting against climate change with other proceses. This is cost effective and offer social added value. So the battle against climate change offers new opportunities. The measures should be durable - show an effective use of water, energy and other raw materials, improving the over all quality of life.

The Delta Programme should be the basic plan, politically established in the Delta Act and financially by creating a dedicated fund. Also, the country faces a backlog, standards are oldfashioned, the sea level rises faster than expected and river flows are showing more extremes. The execution of the plans will cost about EUR1.0 to 1.5 billion a year.

Thus, a vision for the future has been developed, reaching past 2100, with twelve recommendations for the near and middle-term future:

• Improve the safety levels of dykes by a factor 10, to be realised by 2050
• The choice of new buildings on locations that are physically not favorable should be based on a cost-benefit analysis
• Developments outside dykes should not limit the capacity of rivers or lakes, also not in the future
• Adding sand before the North Sea Coast will increase safety, facilitating creation of more land
• The Wadden Sea should be monitored
• Land reclamation should improve the tide activity in the Oosterschelde
• The Westerschelde will be unchanged and serve as nature and traffic area. Stronger dykes are necessary for improved security
• The South-west delta should be serving as an overflow for Rhine and Maas.
• The rivers Rhine and Maas should be able to have a flow of 18,000m3/s.
• Rijnmond will be locked and not have a function as overflow for water. The drinking water should come from the IJsselmeer area, which requires a change of infrastructure.
• The water level in the IJsselmeer should increase by 1.5m, facilitating flowing into the Wadden Sea and keeps it’s function as sweet water reserve for the north-west of The Netherlands.
• Organisation and funds need to be arranged to realise the projects mentioned.