More than a quarter of the Netherlands — whose name means “low-lying lands” — is below sea level. For hundreds of years, the Dutch have harnessed a system of polders and dykes to keep its land dry. The country has 40,000km of dykes, levees and seawalls, as well as innumerable sluices and barriers that swing shut whenever the sea surges. And its experience is now an inspiration for Singapore.
SINGAPORE (Aug 26): When 33-year-old Jeremy Tan first visited the Netherlands as an engineering undergraduate about a decade ago, he was mesmerised by the beauty of the countryside, with its iconic windmills and canals.
“We were looking out over a vast expanse of reclaimed land, or what the Dutch call ‘polders’,” Tan says. “As a Singaporean, [I was not as impressed by] reclaimed land anymore. But to learn that the windmills were also part of an elaborate system designed to draw water away from flooded areas — that’s a real engineering marvel.”
