Delta Works

Karin

Where is the Netherlands?

The Netherlands is in Europe. It lies on the North Sea, next to Germany and Belgium. As you can see on this map, it is not very big. Even so, more than 16 million people live in the Netherlands, making it one of the most crowded countries in the world.

The Netherlands is sometimes called Holland. This is actually not right, because Holland is the name of two of the twelve provinces that make up the Netherlands: North Holland and South Holland. These provinces played an important part in the history of the Netherlands, so the name has stuck.

Netherlands is under water!

Did you know that parts of the Netherlands are lower than the sea? Nowadays many people live in places where fish used to swim. The Dutch made a lot of their land themselves by draining lakes. Most of this new land is polders. The Netherlands is famous for its polders, which make up two-fifths of the country.

A polder is a piece of land that is lower than the sea and is protected from the water by dikes. Large pumps keep the polders dry. Without dikes and pumps, many parts of the Netherlands would disappear under water again.

For centuries, the Dutch have had to fight the sea and the rivers. Even today it is hard work to keep the Netherlands dry and stop the sea taking back the land. So the Dutch are experts at building dikes, dams and everything that goes with them.

The lowest areas of the Netherlands, which are actually the delta of the Rhine, Maas and Waal rivers, have often been flooded. In 1953, heavy winds and high tides burst the dikes in the province of Zeeland. The islands in the province were flooded.

After that, a series of enormous dams and flood barriers was built to protect the islands. It was the largest project of its kind anywhere in the world and took 30 years to build. It is known as the Delta Project.

The Delta Project

In 1937 it became clear that safety in many parts of the Netherlands was not sure at times of storms and high sea levels. Moreover, in the densely populated areas near the mouths of the big rivers Rhine, the Meuse, and the Schelde, it proved very difficult to build new dikes or strengthen the original ones in order to make these eraes save after all.. The first solution was to close all the river mouths: the Western Schelde, the Eastern Schelde, the Haringvliet, and the Brouwershavense Gat. Look for the red lines in the picture below. This proposal was called 'the Deltaplan'. In 1950, the first river mouths were closed. As a resul the water turned from salt water into a freshwater basin. This not only made the area safer, but it also provided Voorne with a freshwater supply. The plan was to build the remaining dams in the following years.

Unfortunately though, the infamous flood of 1953, in which tousands of people got killed(!) prevented this from happening. People soon became aware that something had to be done, and very, very quickly.

Twenty days after the flood of 1953, there was a special Delta commission formed. The commission would give advice about the execution of the Deltaplan, that would, in the long run, increase the safety of the Delta area.

Although safety was the number one priority, the seaways De Nieuwe Waterweg and the Western Schelde would have to stay open, because of the economic importance of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.

In 1959, the Delta Law was passed, in order to organise the construction of the dams. The building of the 'Deltaworks' was such an enormous project, that it was sometimes referred to as the 'eighth wonder of the world' - and not without good reason.