In Europe, as elsewhere in the world, river deltas are among the most densely populated, economically important and industrialised areas. This means that delta water systems are under heavy environmental pressure, quite apart from the fact that they often act as a collection point for pollution produced upstream.

The specific problems of deltas play a major role in Dutch water management. Whereas only 5% of European waters lie in delta areas, in the Netherlands, the figure is more than half. And the pressures on waters in the Dutch Delta are enormous: the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and several other European areas of similar population density and industrial activity lie directly upstream. All of this produces enduring problems.

For over thirty years, the Netherlands has been working hand in hand with neighbouring countries to reduce pollution in the major rivers, and with result:

• Water quality has vastly improved,
  
• firm international agreements are being put in place about the management of the Rhine, Maas and Scheldt basins and
  
• salmon have returned to the Rhine.

Even so, the recent analysis of river basins reveals that virtually all water bodies in the Netherlands are “at risk”. Clearly, still more needs to be done.

Much of the solution lies in international coordination. This has proved successful over recent decades, especially in the Rhine basin. Discharges of industrial effluent and sewage have been greatly reduced.

Read more on transboundary water management on the website of ‘Nederland leeft met water’ (in Dutch)
Source: Nederland leeft met water

The Dutch have learned from the sometimes harmful effects connected to the many technological interventions that have shaped the country. They realise that continued reliance on costly technological interventions such as higher dikes, stronger pumping engines and more drainage of wetlands is no longer a sensible option.

Instead, safeguarding the natural functioning of wetlands, coasts, rivers and delta's can play a pivotal role with regard to a sustainable solution of the world water crisis.
Therefore, Dutch knowledge institutes, the private sector, the public sector and non-governmental organisations (NGO's) currently develop and apply a broad range of new and innovating concepts and approaches, that are still underused and unknown internationally.

These new approaches bear illustrious names such as ‘Living Rivers', ‘Water as Guiding Principle’ and ‘Dynamic Coastal Management’. They acknowledge the benefits of natural processes provided by wetland ecosystems to society. Also the idea of the multifunctional use of space, a scarce commodity in The Netherlands, is gaining more and more attention. The insights and expertise of the Netherlands with these new integral approaches could be very useful for application in other countries as well.

Read more on some of the dutch approaches to water management:

• Living Rivers - on the website of the World Wide Fund for Nature in the Netherlands (in Dutch)
• Water as Guiding Principle - on the websites of Delta Cluster, Institute for Inland Water Management and Waste Water Treatment (in Dutch)
• Dynamic Coastal Management - on the website of National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management