The water board elections are just around the corner. But to say that they are really alive? Perhaps the most frequently asked question about these elections is why they exist at all. We don’t vote for the cleaning service either, do we?
Unknown makes unloved, but the water board elections are definitely about something. You can safely say that they are the scene of a conflict of interest between farmers, citizens and foresters. A battle with safety, water quality and the spending of 3.5 billion euros in taxpayers’ money at stake. The election results have a direct impact on our living environment and our wallet.
Pump or drown
Without the water boards, the groin boot would dictate the Dutch fashion image. Insofar as the Netherlands still exists, because without dikes and pumping stations, half of our country would disappear under water anyway.
Over a period of eight centuries, water boards have made the Netherlands into what it is today: an ingenious macrame of ditches and canals, streams and rivers, dikes, polders, locks, weirs and pumping stations. Sink or sink, that’s the motto if you live in a wet delta. And you pump together, otherwise you won’t keep your feet dry.
The Netherlands is the only country in the world with separate elections and separate taxes for water management. This is stipulated in the Constitution of 1848 and the legislators of the past had good reasons for this. Because sink or sink may be the creed, but you have to reserve money for it. In addition, someone has to decide where to pump the water, and where to.
The farmer’s interest
For centuries, the water boards have discharged this task in a typical Dutch way: they built dikes and pumped away excess water as quickly as possible. An important pillar of that policy has always been farmers’ interests. Farmers traditionally have a lot of say within the water boards, because they are directly dependent on water management for their business operations.
Today their influence is smaller than in the past, but their presence within the water board boards is still legally guaranteed.
We get to choose, but the secured seats are already taken
Currently, the water board boards number seven to eight secured seats for farmers, nature managers and entrepreneurs. These directors are not elected, but appointed by their umbrella organisations. After 15 March, the general board of each water board will have four guaranteed seats: two for the farmers and two for the nature managers. The entrepreneurs have therefore lost their permanent place. Farmers and nature managers will have less influence, but their say in the water board will remain assured.
Farmers do not want wet lands. Their potatoes and beets rot in soggy soil and their tractors sink into the mud. Just like their cows. And so the water boards prefer to keep the groundwater level low. They do this with 3,600 pumping stations.
Global warming forces new policy
True slurp monsters they are, those ground. For example, the Zedemuden pumping station near Zwartsluis engulfs the contents of three Olympic swimming pools in 1 minute. And if the Frisians bring the Woudagemaal near Lemmer under steam, this World Heritage will spew no less than 4,000 cubic meters of water from the Frisian boezem into the IJsselmeer per minute.
tasks of the water board
● Construction and management of flood defences
● Construction and management of catchment areas for water
● Supply and drainage of water
● Management of the groundwater level
● Take care of water quality
● Sewage treatment
● Muskrat control
● Nature development
● Intervene in the event of flooding, dike breaches, etc
But now the traditional approach of the water boards is no longer sufficient. Due to global warming, they are increasingly faced with periods of extreme precipitation and prolonged drought. In wet times, the pumping stations are often unable or barely able to cope with the work. Moreover, we have largely lost the water they pump out, while we need it more and more in the summer to combat the drought. And so the water boards must discharge less water and retain more, as the cabinet decided last year. They must create larger water reserves from which they can draw during dry periods to raise the groundwater level.
Damage to homes and crops
Raising the groundwater level is urgently necessary, because a groundwater level that is too low leads to major problems. Not only nature and arable crops dry up during those long dry summers, but also the peat soils on which we have built houses. According to it Knowledge Center Approach to Foundation Problems threatens foundation damage for many hundreds of thousands of houses in the Netherlands because the soil dries out and settles. Moreover, the dried up peat soil emits a lot of CO2. After eight centuries of dewatering, it is now time for rewetting.
This takes some getting used to for the water authorities, also in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. They have to make new choices. They can discharge their excess water into the IJsselmeer and the Wadden Sea, or they can collect it in special water storage areas and wider ditches. They can also make the banks of streams and rivers suitable as flood areas. This creates new nature where you can dispose of a lot of excess water.
And maybe there are fields that can stay wet. Fields of farmers who want to switch to wet crops such as bulrush, peat moss, duckweed fern, cranberries, reeds and willows. You can use that to make building materials, or potting soil, or animal feed. Soggy lands do not always have to be an enemy for livestock farmers either. There are already farmers in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen who have exchanged their cows for water buffaloes.
The water authority is similar to the municipal council
● The dijkgraaf (the mayor) is the chairman of the water board. The government appoints him or her for a period of six years.
● It general management (the municipal council) controls the water board. The residents elect this board for a period of four years. The general board elects the executive board from among its members.
● The daily drivers (the aldermen) prepare and implement the policy.
No dualism
In contrast to municipalities, water boards do not have a dualism. The daily directors may also be members of the general board. Since 2002 aldermen in a municipality are no longer allowed to be members of the municipal council.
Unlike a municipality, which deals with general administrative tasks, the water board is specifically concerned with water management. Dualism could get in the way of the functionality of that work, or so has been the traditional thought. However, critics believe that the general board cannot independently carry out its monitoring task as long as the executives vote on their own policy proposals.
It makes a difference who is on the board
It matters who is on the board of a water board. Farmers, nature managers, regular political parties and special water board parties all participate in the management and they all have their own views on good water management. There is a good chance that a party such as Water Naturally will make different choices than, for example, the VVD or CDA. But how do you, as a voter, know exactly what the parties want?
Today it’s a lot easier than it used to be. Previously, we voted for individual candidates who displayed their views in leaflets and election newspapers. Thanks to the revised Water Boards Act of 2008, the candidates are now on electoral lists. And the election programs of their parties are online.
Voice assistance is a lifebuoy in waterland
To make it easier for voters, the water boards have also launched a voting aid. If you don’t know anything about it, but you still want to vote, then that voting aid is a real lifeline in Waterland. You will find it Mijnstem.nl . The voice assistant also tells you directly in which water board you live. Almost half of the Dutch do not know this, as a recent survey showed poll of research firm Citisens.
Water charges are on the rise
Water board charges will increase by an average of 8 percent this year. This has several causes.
● High inflation and energy costs.
● Consequences of global warming.
● Higher treatment costs due to the increase in pharmaceutical residues, microplastics and PFAS in the sewage water.
● Improving water quality according to the European Water Framework Directive.
3.5 billion euros in taxes
In 2019, the 21 water boards in our country received three billion euros in water board tax, this year that is already 3.5 billion. The amounts are also considerable in the Northern Netherlands.
The water board divides the burden among farmers, citizens, foresters and companies
The water boards set different tax rates for farmers, nature managers, companies, homeowners and tenants. That’s how they share the burden. If they make farmers pay a little more, the rate for nature managers can be lowered. Or vice versa. And if they increase the rate for citizens, the burden for farmers can be reduced. As residents of a water board, we can agree or disagree with these financial choices. During the water board elections, we are allowed to express our views on this, as well as on the future of our water management. March 15 is the day.
Knowing more? The website www.water-boardelections.nl offers a wealth of information about the water boards and their elections.
Water board or province?
Critics call the water boards an unnecessary extra administrative layer. They think the provinces should take over the water board work. However, the water boards emphasize that their river basins do not care about provincial boundaries. It would therefore be difficult to conduct coherent water management at the provincial level.