About 11,000 residents of Nijverdal in Overijssel came for Christmas to be without power, because a switching station on the IJssel flooded. The Utrecht municipality of Vijfheerenlanden called on parkers in a parking lot along the Lek to remove their cars as quickly as possible. Fortmond, located in a bend of the IJssel, has been virtually inaccessible to residents for several days because the only access road has been flooded, the municipality set up a ferry.
For the time being, the soaking wet Christmas is causing relatively minor inconvenience in the Netherlands. But the water boards and Rijkswaterstaat do have exceptionally busy holidays. In Meersendijk, also Overijssel, a one hundred meter emergency dike has been constructed because the water in the Regge river entered a house. In dozens of municipalities in Gelderland, Limburg, Brabant, Flevoland and Drenthe, water managers are working to drain the water as quickly as possible with extra pumping stations, close roads, install barriers and sandbags.
The high water is a stress test for the Dutch dikes – and for the water storage around dikes. According to spokesperson Jurjen Jongepier of the Union of Water Boards, “the sponge is completely full” in many places along the rivers due to the persistent rain. So although no acute problems are expected with the strength of the dikes, a lot of nuisance can still arise from backed up groundwater.
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Stress test
On Tuesday afternoon, eleven water boards had been ‘scaled up’ to properly coordinate the extra deployment of people and resources. “The Drents Overijsselse Delta, Hunze en Aa’s, and Vechtstromen water boards in particular are paying increased attention and commitment to the situation,” according to Jongepier.
“We are keeping a close eye on the situation,” outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte shared on X. Rijkswaterstaat announced code orange for the IJssel and Vecht during Christmas, a state of alert that occurs on average once every five years. In some smaller rivers, such as the Dinkel and the Regge in eastern Netherlands, the highest water levels have been measured in ten years.
Things will be exciting on Wednesday in Deventer, among other places: the IJssel is expected to flow over the quay wall there for the first time since 2011. An emergency plan has been put into effect to limit damage and inconvenience.
There will also be nuisance around other rivers in the coming days. Rijkswaterstaat reports that the water level in the Rhine has risen to fourteen meters above NAP (Normal Amsterdam Level). “We now expect that rise to continue to around 14.50 meters in the evening of Wednesday, December 27,” according to the latest warning message. That water will flow further into the country over the next few days.
The IJsselmeer, also called ‘the national rain barrel’ by water managers, is so full that extra water is now discharged into the Wadden Sea, via the locks in the Afsluitdijk.
Lisanne Verheijen, spokesperson for Rijkswaterstaat, emphasizes that water safety in the Netherlands has not been compromised. “These types of high tides are more common in winter – that’s why we have floodplains.”
Awakened by sirens
There have been bigger problems across the border in Germany in recent days. In the town of Rodenberg, in the state of Lower Saxony, residents were awakened in the night from Saturday to Sunday by sirens and volunteers from the municipality, because the water began to overflow the banks.
In Leer, near Winschoten in Groningen, hundreds of emergency workers were busy with sandbags to stabilize a dike on Boxing Day. The dike is “like pudding”, said a fire brigade spokesman against the German news Tagesschau, although the situation is now under control according to the authorities. Residents have been asked to prepare for a possible evacuation. Residents have already been evacuated in some other villages in the region.
News medium ARD reports that the authorities in Lower Saxony fear dike breaches and further flooding in more places. The worst is probably not yet behind us in Germany either: most weather agencies are predicting a lot of rain again in the coming days.
Some of this will also flow back into the Netherlands via Germany, including via the Rhine. Only around New Year’s, Rijkswaterstaat expects a visible drop in the water level in most rivers. The high tide is likely to peak sometime between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening.
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