‘Moeder Maas’ will have 40 additional football fields

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The visitor to the information evening in Venlo hits a nerve with his skepticism about the costs. Because the financing of the Vierwaarden project, for which work will only start in six years, seems to have been completed, but this does not apply to many other projects in the Netherlands. In order to meet the new, climate-proof safety standards by 2050, 1,500 kilometers of dikes must be reinforced, slightly less than half of all major flood defences.

In the meantime, two hundred kilometers have been completed and about six hundred kilometers are being tackled in ongoing projects. The question is whether the program can be completed. There is 13.7 billion euros available: half is paid by the national government and the other half by the 21 water boards. “There is no problem for the short term,” says Erik Wagener. “We currently have enough money and projects to continue for the next six to twelve years. We are discussing what happens next. We are experiencing price increases, especially since the war in Ukraine, and setbacks. They are complicated projects. You draw a line through the landscape and many interests and many parties are involved.”

Seventeen projects

Wagener is director of the national Flood Protection Program that organizes and coordinates the projects. It is not yet known exactly how many kilometers of dike will eventually be tackled, he says. That depends on research into the strength of the current dikes. The results of measurements are expected at the end of this year, after which it is up to Minister Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management, VVD) to take decisions. Wagener: “We have to choose between additional resources or perhaps a different approach.” That could mean, for example: not a complete metamorphosis of an area, as is the case with Venlo, but only tackling a weak spot.

Limburg is waiting for seventeen projects along the Maas, of which Vierwaarden is one. In 2050, more than 120 kilometers of dikes must be reinforced. For centuries, the Meuse in Limburg was a more or less undyked river, which occasionally overflowed and the local residents took the flooding for granted. People also built to their heart’s content in the floodplains: homes, businesses, even the hospital of Venlo is there.

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“The Maas has always been regarded as ‘Mooder Maas’, Mother Maas, a river that takes good care of you but which is sometimes strict. Living with the water. As a boy I often skated in the floodplains myself,” says Jos Teeuwen, director of the Limburg water board.

That attitude changed in the 1990s, when major flooding occurred twice and Limburgers even had to be evacuated. In the years that followed, construction of dykes was started, emergency dykes in fact, which are now in need of improvement.

Evacuate hospital

“We want to move the low dyke in the direction of the built-up area and strengthen it, so that everyone will be safe behind the dyke from now on,” explains ‘area director’ Keesjan van den Herik of the Limburg water board about the Vierwaarden project. And while thirty years ago a lot of resistance from residents had to be overcome in order to strengthen dykes, the average Limburger is now a lot more accommodating. Especially after the flood disaster two years ago in South Limburg, when a combination of a lot of Maas water and water from the Geul and Roer tributaries disrupted Valkenburg in particular.

The flood defenses along the Maas that had meanwhile been tackled held up. “But we did have to have the hospital in Venlo evacuated,” says Jos Teeuwen.

Also view this In Image about the floods in Limburg: The images of the flooding in South Limburg

The work along the Meuse, which had already been completed, proved its usefulness at the time, says director Wagener of the Flood Protection Programme. And precisely in the places where Limburg is now going to work, it was “exciting” during the high water wave two years ago. Wagener: “The water remained just below the edge in those places. It was a confirmation that we have to get to work there.”

Nowadays it takes less effort to convince Limburgers of the need for measures, says water manager Jos Teeuwen. He distinguishes between two types of inhabitants. Firstly, people who live along the Maas and look out on it. “They have an unobstructed view and often take nuisance for granted.” Secondly, residents who live ‘across the street’: they do not see the Maas, but occasionally get wet feet. “They just suffer from it.”

Begging water managers

There is “some tension” between these groups of Limburgers, Teeuwen notes. “But we are increasingly succeeding in convincing people with an unobstructed view of the Maas that it is no fun for them either to be confronted with a flood every five years, for example.”

What is striking in all projects is that the planners eagerly ask for input from local residents. For the Vierwaarden project, the water managers beg for ‘participation’ and, so to speak, like nothing more than to inquire beforehand how the residents would prefer to handle the dyke improvements – if only to avoid delays due to legal objections later on.

That participation is also really useful, says Jos Teeuwen. For example, residents of Arcen in North Limburg are waiving financial compensation for the work now that plans are being made for a self-closing barrier that will not spoil the view of the Maas. “The residents actually pay for that.”

And even before the information evening about the Vierwaarden project in Venlo, local residents came up with the idea of ​​reclaiming space for the Maas north of the village, near the former beer brewery. “It turned out that there was still room to gain.”

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A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 22, 2023.