Implementation of Delta Committee recommendations urgent but not critical
Directional but not specific
On 3 September this year the Delta Committee’s integrated final recommendations were submitted to the Dutch government. They cover moral choices, a vision for the future and the sharing of responsibilities for the future water safety of the Netherlands. For the government these recommendations are an important building block of the National Water Plan which State Secretary Tineke Huizinga will present at the end of 2008. The plans were very well received and the members of the Delta Committee have now officially completed their task… So what next?
“Our task was not how to reduce climate-disrupting influences, but how to adapt to this climate change,’ explains former Dutch agriculture minister and Delta Committee chairman Cees Veerman. ‘The Delta Committee is directional, but not specific. We’ve set down our findings and linked them to a number of political decisions to be taken in areas like financing, administrative structures and spatial planning decisions. We’ve done our job… the arena is now open for considering and designing the various possibilities. The Delta Competition organized by Royal Haskoning is a first class example for initiating sustainable solutions.”
Take action now
“Climate change and rising sea levels have implications for our coastal defences and our rivers,’ stresses Cees Veerman. So we must take action now to ensure that our citizens are safe in the centuries to come. A considerable proportion of our dikes (approximately 30%) are still not in a good condition and the situation of another 30% is unclear. We have broadened and deepened the remit of the previous Delta Committee, because our concept of safety and the interests that have to be protected is outdated and has to be adapted.”
Avoiding bias
“Cees Veerman put the committee together himself in order to get well-founded recommendations. It became a close-knit group of specialists from diverse backgrounds focusing on a specific subject. ‘We consulted experts in civil society in order to get a response to the outlines of our advice and gave professional institutes specific research tasks. In order to keep our recommendations as unbiased as possible we kept the process outside the commercial arena as far as we could. Minutes were kept of all these discussions so that each committee member knew exactly what was going on. How reacted, for example, the Upper House, a trade union or the mayor of Amsterdam or Rotterdam to our plans. Obviously there were lively discussions within our committee, but we were totally unanimous in our final recommendations.”
Urgent but not critical
“The Netherlands doesn’t need to worry,’ continues Veerman, ‘but nor must we let ourselves be taken by surprise. We must face the fact that a danger exists. The implementation of our recommendations is urgent but not critical. We are obviously working on the weak links where speed is needed. However each dike is made for its specific situation. It is essential that a new dike does not breach, although it may (if we specifically decide this) overflow. With each measure we have to weigh up what we want, what the landscape permits and what the interests of protection demand.”
Importance of water boards
“To be certain of an adequate budget for protection against disasters there has to be separate financing for independent responsibilities, such as the water boards,’ says Cees Veerman. ‘So that they don’t have to compete with other things.’ A visit to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina strengthened the committee in its belief that financing should come from outside the national budget. ‘The structure of our Dutch water boards guarantees a separate source of financing. The US doesn’t have this structure and that works to their disadvantage.”
Exporting knowledge
Veerman continues, ‘There is a great deal of interest in our final recommendations from other countries. We’ve had interviews with international professional journals and have been covered extensively in the French news. The Netherlands should be able to be of service to fragile delta areas elsewhere in the world with the results of the Delta Committee. Half of the world’s population lives in deltas such as those of the Nile, Mississippi, Ganges or Yangtze. These areas are where food is produced, and the inhabitants are vulnerable. The Netherlands can help other countries with the building of dikes. But we can also teach them to adapt to the given circumstances safely. Organizations like Royal Haskoning can play an important role here as they are already doing in New Orleans, Jakarta and in Vietnam.”
Definite course
“Climate change is a real problem for the Netherlands,’ concludes Cees Veerman.
‘It has to do with our existence in this delta and we want to guarantee that permanently. The Delta Committee’s recommendations offer fantastic opportunities for modernization and innovative solutions. We must not commit ourselves to things that we now think of as ‘the’ solutions for 2100 or 2200. Let’s see how we go…but with a definite course in mind!”
