Today we traveled to the province of Zeeland and visited one the most famous modern engineering marvels in the world, Delta Works. The Netherlands have been constantly fighting against mother nature and the power of the sea, in 1953 almost 2,000 people lost their lives to a disastrous flood. This prompted the creation of the Delta Works, a huge network of storm surge barriers and dams across the southwest of The Netherlands, with a total cost of 8.2 billion euros. During our visit we saw the portion of the barriers that protected the Oosterschelde and visited the official museum and park on the island of Neeltje Jans.

The Delta Works is an enormous project, with 65 40-meter-tall concrete piers protecting a vast majority of the Netherlands from flood and disaster. It was an incredible example of cooperation and engineering, as well as public works backed by the population. The Dutch are very proud of their water management, and this is their best example. Seeing it in person was awe inspiring, although you can’t really appreciate the true scale of the engineering from above water. You can however, tell that it was a very important accomplishment for the Dutch and the 1953 flood is held in solemn remembrance.

When you look from a sustainability perspective, I think the Delta Works are very important for the progress in The Netherlands. Although, there was a huge investment of energy and resources to construct the project it ensures protection of the country for hundreds of years. Without this protection there would be much more risk of a large flood putting the Dutch back a few years, especially with climate change increasing the intensity and regularity of storms. Something us as Americans can take away from the Delta Works, is that it requires a large amount of cooperation and support to complete these huge engineering feats that are necessary for human growth and prosperity.