Groundwater goes up, nitrogen goes down

Now, in the 1920s, the Netherlands must make the decisions for the major themes up to the year 2100 and beyond, said Minister Mark Harbers (VVD, Infrastructure and Water Management) this week in the House of Representatives. Such as whether or not to build a second coastline, a high, wide dyke in the sea as a buffer against rising sea levels. That is, if we have enough sand for that, because the sea and river dykes also need to be reinforced.

“We know from previous major projects in the Netherlands, the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Works, that they ultimately took about eighty years from initial plans to realization,” said the minister.

Couldn’t the cabinet speed up a little more, instead of conducting research after research, asked impatient parliamentary parties. Climate change and environmental pollution, but also the energy crisis, housing shortage and the traffic jam problem will not solve themselves.

It shows the frustration at a government that does not get along with drastic, unpopular interventions, at a time of political fragmentation and fierce social resistance.

Very carefully

After less than a year, the Rutte IV cabinet is now very cautiously starting to address those major issues for the future. A thick package of letters to parliament was published on Friday: about nitrogen and agriculture, the rural area and water and soil.

In steps, Rutte IV announces that it will take more direction, because the major issues require central management. It is also gradually becoming clear how far-reaching the measures are becoming for how we live, work and move.

The Netherlands has been fighting against “too much water” for hundreds of years, said Minister Harbers, but the fight against “too little water” is added. The supply of fresh water will shrink in the future, due to more dry summers, the population growth from 17.5 million to almost 19 million inhabitants in 2035 and economic development. At the same time, there is salinization of surface and groundwater due to the rising level of the sea, which enters deeper into the country.

We will therefore have to be much more economical with drinking water, according to the cabinet. The Netherlands must use 20 percent less drinking water than it does now (100 liters instead of 125 liters per person per day).

There will be a building ban in the deepest polders of the Netherlands

How? There will be a “national plan of action for drinking water savings”, but drinking water will also become more expensive, “with safeguards for affordability”, the cabinet writes. The ‘five minute shower a day’ due to the current energy prices will be a permanent fixture to save on drinking water costs.

Cutting back on water will have major consequences for drinking water companies, farmers and market gardeners, food producers and industry. For example, the supply of drinking water for cooling to large-scale consumers, such as data centers, will be limited, the cabinet letter states.

‘Our national rain barrel’

Water and land will compete more with each other in this small country. More freshwater supplies must be built up and more water must be stored in the IJsselmeer and the Markermeer: ​​’our national rain barrel’, as the cabinet calls them. To keep enough space in that barrel, no new islands may be created in these lakes for land reclamation.

The space in water areas for housing is becoming more limited – even though the government has the ambition to build 900,000 homes nationwide by 2030. Enough space must remain around dykes and dams, dunes and ‘water-retaining structures’, for example, to be able to strengthen them, also after 2050.

Also new is a future building ban in 5 to 10 percent of the deep polders in the Netherlands; the cabinet wants to reserve these areas for water storage. This sharpens the public debate about projects such as the ‘Fifth Village’ in the Zuidplaspolder. Here, at the lowest point in the Netherlands at approximately 6.7 meters below NAP, 8,000 new homes are to be built in the coming years.

The interests of farmers and homeowners clash over water policy. It was already leaked this week that the cabinet wants to raise the water level in low moor areas. Large parts of these areas in the western and northern Netherlands have been drained to enable agriculture. In rural areas, the soil subsides and the peat dries out, releasing harmful greenhouse gases.

This subsidence leads to damage to foundations, causing houses to sag. In total, hundreds of thousands of homes are at risk, particularly in the western Netherlands, North Friesland and Groningen. The damage to houses, but also to infrastructure, sewers and public space, will amount to several billions by 2050.

The groundwater level in higher sandy soils in the eastern Netherlands is also rising. Soils here are affected by, for example, manure, plant protection products, or discharges from sewage treatment plants. The cabinet wants to combat desiccation and restore the ‘sponge effect’ of the soil to retain water and drain it properly.

But raising the groundwater level in areas also has adverse consequences for farmers. They cannot keep cattle on marshy grounds and tractors sink. “Unacceptable”, says the agricultural and horticultural organization LTO in a response. “The new soil and water policy affects almost all soil types and important crops in the Netherlands,” says LTO.

Salinization

The government’s policy choices not only affect a professional group such as farmers, but entire regions may experience consequences in the long term.

Extra freshwater is currently being supplied to areas where there is a risk of salinization. 14 percent of the Dutch territory is at risk of salinization: in particular the Wadden area, the Zeeland islands, the coastal areas and polders in the west. The increase in salt in the soil is a problem for farmers, nature and, for example, drinking water companies.

In the event of drought, peat areas will henceforth be given priority in the distribution of freshwater, because the groundwater level must be raised here. There will then not be enough freshwater for the Rhine-Meuse estuary in the west to combat salinization – and that may also apply to other areas. In fact, the cabinet says: we just have to accept the transformation of the landscape in these regions.

Peak loaders

Earlier this week, it had already been leaked about the approach to nitrogen that the cabinet wants to buy out 2,000 to 3,000 major polluters (‘peak taxers’) in order to restore nature. Farmers or factories that are not tempted by the one-off buyout offer may be forced to stop from 2024.

The government says it does not have an address list or a top 100 peak loaders: the approach is mainly aimed at farmers and about 50 to 60 companies from the industry.

The cabinet letter on the future prospects for farmers is deliberately left vague and contains little news. Minister of Agriculture Piet Adema (Christian Union) wants to retain some leeway to reach an agricultural agreement with the farmers on the reform of the sector early next year. This will undoubtedly cause irritation in the House of Representatives, which feels sidelined in this process. Adema’s predecessor, Henk Staghouwer, resigned because he was unable to give the farmers any concrete prospects for the future.

The Agricultural Agreement must concern the approach to nitrogen and the transition to sustainable ‘circular agriculture’, but also crop protection, animal diseases and zoonoses, public health, odor and particulate matter. Farmers are “at the helm” of this reform, but it will be a “mix of voluntary and mandatory measures,” writes Adema. “If there are insufficiently firm agreements, I will not hesitate to announce and deploy these legal measures towards the chain parties.”

It is clear that the reform of agriculture will not only have consequences for the agricultural chain, but for the whole of the Netherlands. In 2040, supermarkets must only sell sustainable agricultural products, is the aim. “My intention is to fill the shelves with sustainable products. And that it is no longer a choice menu,” said Adema on Friday.

All these reforms require active government intervention, while the legal deadlines are getting closer. It was the coalition of VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie that brought forward the achievement of the nitrogen target from 2035 to 2030. But it was the Council of State, the highest administrative court, that had to stop the illegal nitrogen policy of the same cabinet.

Earlier, in 2027, another legal debacle could present itself, comparable to the nitrogen crisis. In that year, the surface and groundwater in the Netherlands must be clean and healthy and meet European requirements. Minister Harbers says it will work, GroenLinks thinks that “miracles” are needed to make it. But if that doesn’t work, you’ll get environmental lawsuits again and permits for farmers, builders and companies will again be ‘suspended’, MPs predict.