God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland.
Global warming is making coastal cities around the world fear losing their land to the advancing sea. Including Brazilian cities, such as Santos in São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro.
The melting of glaciers will inevitably advance the sea, but there are nations that have been prepared for this for a long time with their engineering marvels.
The Dutch struggle against the sea is a fascinating story. The Netherlands is a country that is below sea level, and is therefore vulnerable to flooding. To combat this problem, the Dutch built dikes, fortifications, and mills to dry their lakes and swamps.
Polder mills are found in the western region of the Netherlands, which is situated below sea level. The lowest polder is located near Rotterdam and is 6.6 meters below sea level: the lowest place in the Netherlands. In fact, the polder is the bottom of what was once a lake or part of the sea. In the eastern part of the Netherlands there are no polder mills, as this region is well above sea level and all excess water finds its natural way into streams and rivers, as in other countries.
About a thousand years ago, the entire western region of the Netherlands, where the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Haia are now located, was made up of swamps and lakes. This area was constantly suffering from flooding from the sea or the floods of the great rivers of the Netherlands: the Rhine and the Meuse. There were a few higher places where there were some villages and cities and their inhabitants needed to always be alert against floods. They tried to keep the rivers within their beds by reinforcing the banks with dikes. They gradually erected a complete system of protective dams, and in the same way defended themselves against advances from the sea.
But how can we keep the land behind the dikes free from excess rainwater? The fields were very low, which prevented the water from finding a way out.
In principle, a water wheel was used. The water from the low-lying area was thus transported over the dike, joining the water existing on the other side of the same dike. These wheels were moved by the force of man or horse, until one day someone had the brilliant idea of using the energy of the wind to make the wheels work. This is how the polder pumping mill was born.
The first historical information about the polder mill dates from 1407 and concerns a mill in the city of Alkmaar, a welcome invention of Floris van Alkemade Count of Alkmaar and Jan Grieten his friend.
We currently see Leeuwarden — The 200-kilometer road that connects the capital The Hague, in the southeast of the Netherlands, to the far north of the country, which only exists because in the 1920s the Dutch decided to build, between the provinces of North Holland and Friesland, the giant Afsluitdijk dike, 32 kilometers long, 90 meters wide and a height of more than 7 meters above sea level. On one side is the sea and, on the other, a freshwater lake that was formed after the construction of the dike and which, at the beginning of March, with the negative temperatures in the region, becomes completely frozen. It’s an example of how the Dutch have a long history of developing technology to deal with water challenges.
Since 1800, the Netherlands began to create public councils, which in the current model are elected by the population every four years and are allowed to collect taxes and carry out the necessary works to supply, store and treat water, as well as to maintain security against floods and storms.
Public investment in the Dutch water sector is around 4 billion euros per year. In the Netherlands, water is a priority topic and does not compete in the budget with other items.
