Today we took a trip to the Delta Works here in the Netherlands. The name Delta Works actually refers to a series of projects that took place following the catastrophic floods in here in Holland in 1953. The government, and of course the people, needed a solution to ensure that there would not be such an awful event to occur here again. Thus, the government launched a massive operation to construct dams, raise dykes, and create storm surge barriers to avoid any future catastrophes.

We were greeted with a quick bite to eat before a short film and tour of the museum portion. After our nice breakfast, we walked over to view the film that gave us an overview of what the flooding did here in Holland, which we had learned about at the Watersnoodmuseum a few days ago. The film also gave us a brief overview of what the rest of our tour expanded on, the Delta Works project. The scale of this project was very hard to comprehend, but our tour guide did a great job at helping to explain exactly what was happening during the construction of these various projects.

Our tour guide was tough to hear and also had an accent like many of the people we’ve met here, so it was tough to understand but I did get some important information. With the constant risk of climate change, these barriers will need to be continually raised because of the rising ocean levels. Though the raising will be very gradual and occur in very short amounts as the ocean is not rising by feet at a time, this is still a daunting task especially given the 14 different structures that make up the Delta Works.

This part of our day truly accentuated one of Frank’s most important phrases: “Hope is not a plan.” The government of the Netherlands did not take hope as a plan after the floods of 1953, and ensured that the people of the Netherlands would be able to feel safe in the wake of this disaster.

Our tour concluded with the guide taking us out to the Oosterscheldekering, the flood barrier that is actually on site at the Delta Works facility. The scale was truly hard to comprehend, and with the giant windmills around it, it truly showed how massive this individual piece of the whole project is. Our tour guide noted that the project was expensive, but immediately followed it up with a great quote to take away from our day: “It was expensive, but safety makes us money.” The safety of the Dutch people allows the country as a whole to continue to flourish and thrive in the modern world.

We had a quick lunch and then had time to ourselves where many of us went to go see the aquarium. There were many different kinds of fish including seahorses, manta rays, sharks, etc. This really brought the whole experience into perspective, because these were exactly the creatures that these dams were protecting. For context, I had to ask our guide why exactly it was that none of these storm barriers were being used for sustainable energy generation, and his answer was very direct. The animals should not be affected by the constructions that protect us, in other words, the migration patterns of these different species should not be altered or cut of completely as a negative externality to the construction of the Delta Works. I appreciated and completely understood his answer, and these animals should absolutely be protected.

We finished off the day with an amazing boat ride around the area, seeing some of the sand bars as well as all of the wind mills and of course, we had a great view of the Oosterscheldekering.

Overall, a great, educational day here in the Netherlands and a great experience. As we learn more and more about the sustainable infrastructure projects here in the Netherlands, I wonder if the United States needs to take some notes on how effective the Dutch are at making things happen. Sure, the US is better at a lot of things compared to the Dutch, but on the topic of infrastructure and especially natural disaster protection like we learned about today, the US government should take some major notes from the Dutch to ensure that events like hurricanes and tsunamis have minimized damage.