Today we visited Deltaparks – Neeltje Jans. The name was originally named after one of the designer’s girlfriends, but the name was changed to include his name as well (Jans).

The Deltapark had many fun activities. There was a museum, water park, aquarium, informative whale expo, and a 4D “Delta Experience”. We went to every location, however, I am only going to detail the experiences that stuck out to me the most. It was obvious that Deltapark was geared more towards children. The park definitely tried to combine a very important topic regarding floodwater management with an engaging experience.

Our first stop was a movie explaining how the floodgates worked..The gates were first promised following the flood of 1953. The Dutch government vowed to never let a disaster like that happen again. We visited a specific site in which the largest and most extensive Delta Works project was built. The structure is 9 kilometers long and connects the islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beceland in Zeeland. It took 10 years to build (from 1976 to 1986). It has 65 concrete piers that are separated by floodgates that are ~42 meters wide. There are three integral parts of the barrier. Sill beams made of concrete are placed on the bottom of the sections. A concrete beam is placed on top as well. In the middle, there is an opening that can be closed by the insertion of the metal floodgates. These floodgates, of which there are 62, take 82 minutes to close. They are closed when the water level is expected to rise 3 meters above the “normal” level. They usually keep the gate open for no more than 5 hours so as not to disturb the environment.

It’s a marvel of engineering created out of necessity. The floodgates have prevented a disaster such as the flood of 1953 from occurring. Our tour guide stated, however, that it is very expensive to maintain operation (in the billions of taxpayer dollars) and the floodgates are only effective until 2100. This demonstrates how temporary the solution really is and how the sea is always a threat. While the consumers (the people) need a permanent solution, the government is unable to give them one due to the constantly changing market conditions (the sea and water levels). Scientists and engineers are constantly working on new solutions to prevent the Netherlands from going underwater. The concept of the floodgates was effectively fulfilled and consumer needs were met.

The “Delta Experience” was the part that I felt I gained the most knowledge about. In this experience, we entered a room designed to be a house from a village affected by the flood of 1953. The house’s “windows” were projected with images of what outside the house would have looked like if we were actually in the village. The scene started at 8 pm with minimal disruption outside. The clock then suddenly turned to 4 am. The scene outside became violent. Wind blew the trees at an almost 180-degree angle and the sky was illuminated with lightning. The loud sound of thunder echoed throughout the small room. A child’s cries could be heard from the “other room” (a smaller subsection of the room). Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blew out the windows and the room turned pitch black. We were then guided to another room. In this room, we watched a scene of animated people defending their houses from the storm. A man and a woman piled up sandbags on a dike as the waves seemed to get bigger and bigger. A child soon ran out of the house screaming for his parents. They screamed at him to go back inside the house, to which he eventually complied. This scene continued for a grueling five minutes. We all did not know if the family would survive or not. Then, flood waters broke through on the opposite side of the dike (the side opposite the ocean). We watched in horror for what felt like forever as the ground level of the floor flooded and the face of the house was swept away. At last, a child’s cry could be heard. The child was on the second floor and tried to reach his parents. Thankfully, a piece of debris lodged itself between the dike and the house. The family was reunited.

This experience was extremely immersive. I felt the horror and anxiety that those who lived through the disaster may have also felt. In no way was my reaction the same, but it did give me enough of a scare to realize just how important DeltaWorks is.