Water Technology | Dutch Water Sector (2024)

FAQs

What disaster changed the way the Dutch handle the water? ›

Known locally as the Watersnoodramp, the North Sea flood of 1953 inspired the Dutch people's resolve to never let a tragedy like it ever happen again. Although the country had faced many floods throughout history, none had the same impact as the one in 1953.

All Waternet customers receive water of this hardness. Between 8 and 12 degrees dH, the water hardness is considered average. Above 12 degrees dH, water is considered hard. The average water hardness in the Netherlands is 8 degrees dH.

Water resources and water use

60% of Dutch drinking water comes from groundwater, mainly in the eastern part of the Netherlands. The remaining 40% comes from surface water, mainly in the West where water utilities pump from the Rhine and the Meuse because groundwater is brackish.

It rains a lot in the Netherlands. It is also where the Rhine, the largest river in Europe comes out to the sea, and a quarter of the land is below sea level. Because the soil is the result of centuries of soil being carried down to the sea. The canals collect surplus water which is then pumped out and over the dykes.

To protect their country from floods, the Dutch have built many dikes, barriers, and pumps. The Dutch are threatened by flooding from both the sea and from rivers. To keep low-lying land free of water, they use dikes, which are walls that are built to keep water out.

The Netherlands has one of the best flood control systems in the world, notably through its construction of dykes.

The Netherlands has strict regulations and standards in place to ensure the safety and purity of its tap water. The drinking water in the Netherlands is carefully monitored and treated by water companies to meet these standards. Overall, Dutch tap water is considered safe and of high quality.

Moreover, chlorine is not added to our drinking water, which ensures a better taste, less corrosion of pipework and fewer harmful compounds being formed with chlorine.

by law in the Netherlands every place that serves alcohol is required to provide free drinking water. Further asking for tap water is completely normal. As a former bartender for almost 17 years, if someone would ask me for a glass of water they always get it free.

What country does not use chlorine? ›

The Netherlands is one of the few countries where chlorine is not used at all, neither for primary disinfection nor to maintain a residual disinfectant in the distribution network.

How deep are the Amsterdam canals? The average depth of the canals is 2.6m with a lowest point at 4.5m below sea level. Also, 11 million poles are used to support the city!

There are already shortages in some regions and during peak periods: in 2020, there was not enough drinking water to meet demand peaks in Gelderland and Overijssel, in the western part of South Holland and in the province of Groningen.

For the next few centuries, the Dutch worked to slowly push back the water of the Zuiderzee, building dikes and creating polders (the term used to describe any piece of land reclaimed from water). Once dikes were built, canals and pumps were used to drain the land and to keep it dry.

Relentlessly draining lands through clever use of canals, ditches, sluices, barriers, windmills to pump away water, and persistently pushing back the sea, the Dutch have overcome their oceanic challenge.

For the next few centuries, the Dutch worked to slowly push back the water of the Zuiderzee, building dikes and creating polders (the term used to describe any piece of land reclaimed from water). Once dikes were built, canals and pumps were used to drain the land and to keep it dry.

Local dikes to protect villages were connected to create a ban dike to contain the river at all times. These developments meant that while the regular floods for the first inhabitants of the river valleys were just a nuisance, in contrast the later incidental floods when dikes burst were much more destructive.