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Indeed. It's true that large parts of the Netherlands are below sea level. The reason we're safe here now is because a catastrophic storm in the 50's killed a l
by davedx 7y ago
Indeed. It's true that large parts of the Netherlands are below sea level. The reason we're safe here now is because a catastrophic storm in the 50's killed a lot of people and the government of this rich nation decided to invest in a gigantic public works project to protect the population.
The Deltaworks project is pretty incredible (there's a great museum here all about it). But it certainly wasn't cheap or easy.
"Though officially completed in 1997 at the cost of $7 billion, the Netherlands continues to add infrastructure to the Delta works as needed. It is estimated that it will continue to need construction to protect the area against the rising water levels caused by global warming." [1]
The Dutch public infrastructure department, the Rijkswaterstaat, is called the "Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management". Water management is a huge continuing challenge.
[1] http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/zunderzee.htm http://www.unmuseum.org/7wonders/zunderzee.htm
[2] https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/english https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/english
- holstvoogd 7y agoSince I just did the math: Spending was up to $13 billion in 2013. Based on that, securing all the coast lines of the world to that level will cost over $10 trillion. And I'm pretty sure by 2050 we will have spend a lot more on updating & maintaining the delta works.
- ohyes 7y agoI wonder how much concrete a 10 trillion dollar levy solution will use, and how much that concrete will increase global warming.
- xorfish 7y agoWas that 13 billion per year or in total? So I looked it up, it is 13 billion in total or 1.4% of the yearly GDP of the Netherlands. That seems rather affordable to me.
- rhino369 7y agoYou don't need to secure all the coast lines. Only the parts that are worth saving.
- boudin 7y agoThis work is also highly specific to the Netherlands. It also have a really negative impact on the environment that now needs (and starts) to be addressed. The goal of this project was to address flooding (and is impressive in this regard), but not to solve any environmental issue and even less to address all the repercussions of global warming. Where the point of the guy who wrote this article falls even shorter than it already is, Delta Works needs massive funding to address sea water rise caused by Global Warming as it currently can't handle current predicted scenarios.