Rivers and other ‘water systems’ must be central to decisions about major landscape investments. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) writes this in a new report on Tuesday. This recommendation is not specifically intended for the Netherlands, but for all river deltas and coastal areas in the world. These are under increasing pressure from climate change and human water use.
The Netherlands can vote for the water board elections on Wednesday. An important theme is how our country deals with the consequences of climate change. In addition to flooding, attention is growing for a relatively new problem for the Netherlands: desiccation.
If we want to better cope with hotter and drier summers, less water will have to be discharged in the winter. In other words: we must also realize in the rainy Netherlands that water can be a scarce commodity.
The Netherlands is absolutely no exception in this regard. The scarcity of water, due to climate change and intensive human use, is an increasing challenge worldwide. This is according to the report published on Tuesday The Geography of Future Water Challenges-Bending the Trend of the PBL.
3,700 new dams prevent river deltas from being raised
The authors of the PBL report point to the consequences of climate change, such as sea level rise, more extreme precipitation and an increase in evaporation. As a result, most countries on earth are experiencing more frequent droughts.
Humans themselves also increase the pressure on the water. For example, 3,700 additional river dams are planned in rivers worldwide. After damming, all those rivers lose their natural course.
Dams also hold back clay and sand, which flow with the river water. As a result, the mouth areas of rivers are no longer naturally raised after damming. This has worldwide consequences for agriculture, nature and where subsidence occurs, even for human habitation.
‘We must recognize the value of water worldwide’
The problems are major and urgent, but they can be tackled, writes the PBL. “This calls for worldwide recognition of the value of water for people, the economy and nature.”
Although water problems are increasing around the world and there are clear similarities between the challenges in river deltas and other coastal areas, there are also differences. Poor countries are hit much harder because they are less able to adapt to the new water challenges, the PBL writes.
Whether a country like the Netherlands succeeds in doing so depends not so much on money as on how we manage to combine different interests in a limited area – in a landscape in which we too will probably have to reserve more space for water. The most important recommendation of the PBL is therefore not new for the Netherlands, but perhaps an important reminder.
