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by Charles Carreon
7:17 pm, September 5, 2005
A lot of folks are thinking that you had to
be stupid to live in New Orleans, but my daughter Maria lived there for a
while in summer 2001, and I'm sure glad she moved back to Manhattan in
time for the WTO disaster! As one of the world's most beautiful cities,
founded by the French colonials and filled with beautiful architecture,
stately neighborhoods, and cultural history, it might have received some
respect, and its people some protection.
Protection from nature? From disastrous
tropical storms? From flooding we knew could happen? Yes, like the Dutch
provided for Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and the entire Dutch nation — half of
which lies below sea level.
Welcome To the Netherlands wrote:
The Netherlands is best known for its tulips, windmills and clogs. And for
its low altitude and vulnerability to flooding.
The Netherlands lies on the delta of three major rivers: the Rhine, Maas
and Scheldt. It owes its existence to feats of hydraulic engineering.
The Dutch are proud of their conquest of water. Their struggle to keep dry
has helped them develop a can-do attitude. And since controlling water
requires many parties to meet and plan together, it has forced them to
learn how to work as a team. That is why their European partners and the
broader international community regard the Dutch as bridge builders and
often ask them to serve as such.
Floods
The Netherlands’ many bridges, dykes, windmills and pumping stations give
it a unique appearance and illustrate its long struggle against the sea.
The crowning achievement was the Delta Project, a chain of dams protecting
Zeeland and South Holland from the North Sea.
Work on the Delta Project began after the 1953 floods, and it ended in
1997 with the completion of a storm surge barrier in the Nieuwe Waterweg.
The barrier has two enormous hinged gates that can be lowered in severe
weather to close off the 360-metre-wide waterway. It protects greater
Rotterdam’s one million inhabitants from flooding without harming the
environment.
A
quarter of the Netherlands’ land area lies below sea level. The low-lying
areas consist mainly of “polders”, flat stretches of land, surrounded by
dikes, where the water table is controlled artificially. From the 16th
century, windmills were used not just to keep the land dry, but even to
drain entire inland lakes.
http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_ITEM=MBZ300136
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