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8 April 2015
Instead of raising the river levee, the Dutch national public works, Rijkswaterstaat, started to lower the levee to 3 meters over the river’s 2 km stretch.
In case of an extreme river discharge, the river will rise over the lowered levee and flood the hinterland, the Noordwaard polder.
During the past four years, Rijkswaterstaat has restructured this 2,000 ha polder so it can flood without posing a risk to the remaining 50 homes, and farmers that maintain their farm land.
On 1st April, CEO Jan Hendrik Dronkers of Rijkswaterstaat and René Cruijsen of regional water authority Rivierenland launched the depoldering of Noordwaard. They controlled two excavators and took the first chunks of earth out of the river levee, near Werkendam.
Excavation of the primary flood defense of the Noordwaard polder, is the final stage of one of the biggest projects of the national Room for the River program.
Next step in flood protection
CEO Jan Hendrik Dronkers explained that the depoldering of Noordwaard is a logical next step in the development of flood risk management in the Netherlands.
“We always have to improve it. Doing so, we have realised that we cannot raise our defenses endlessly. We learned that it is better to live with the water and use nature to reduce our flood risks. This is what we are now putting to practice along the Rhine in a string of 30 projects.”
The Noordwaard depoldering project is scheduled to be ready by October this year.
About ‘Room for the River’
Room for the River is a national flood prevention program, comprising 30 projects mainly along the river Rhine, the Netherlands’ largest river.
The program has two objectives. By giving the river Rhine more room, its discharge capacity will rise from 15.000 m3/s to 16.000 m3/s. Additionally the projects will improve the spatial quality as well, making the river also economic and more environmentally friendly.
The Room for the River program will cost about EUR 2.3 billion.
