The Netherlands is famous for its dikes. Maybe it is because of the story by Mary Mapes Dodge who wrote a book that put The Netherlands on the map for a lot of Americans.

She must have imagined the whole story because a leak cannot be stopped by a finger. If there's a leak then we are in serious trouble.

Since The Netherlands are below sea level we have to work hard to keep the sea where it is now. If they break through at least half of the country will sink away. This risk has always been something to keep in mind. We are realistic about the risks, that is why maintenance is integrated into urban planning. We are good at water management and I'm proud of that.

We are lucky to have dunes and dikes to prevent the water from running into the country. Dunes are created by nature but here we put a lot of work to keep them where they are because they tend to move where the wind is bringing them (erosion). But in some places there were no dunes so we put them there and called them dykes.

The Dutch are good at building dykes. They started doing that in the Middle Ages but still floodings happened. The largest was in 1953 that flooded a large part of the south west of the country. A lot of people died. Because of that the Government developed a plan to build more dykes and make sure that the existing ones stay high enough.

A dyke is being built from sand with a layer of clay on top of that. On that grass grows. The dykes have to be protected from the strong water and currents. That's why they also have a layer of tarmac or larges stones.

While building a lot of thought goes into the form of the dyke. On the side of the water it gradually slopes into the water. That ensures that the water won't hit it as hard as a straight "wall". We keep getting better at building them and even build dikes abroad. After Hurricane Katrina the Dutch were asked for their expertise to build new dikes in New Orleans.

Every year the dykes are inspected to find weak spots as early as possible. If needed they are repaired or made higher to keep up with the rising of the sea levels.

This last aspect is something the Dutch try not to worry about. Al Gore stated that The Netherlands are at risk when we go on like this spoiling our beautiful earth. That's why we work really hard to keep The Netherlands nice and dry.

 

source picture: John van Aarle

From the dikes to the history of Amsterdam