Speech minister Schultz van Haegen op H2O9-conferentie in New York City

Toespraak | 09-09-2013

Mr Secretary, ladies and gentlemen, 

Four years ago we celebrated a special bond between New York and the Netherlands. 

Exactly four centuries had passed since Henry Hudson first sailed into New York Bay. 

This conference follows on fittingly from those celebrations and I am happy to be here. 

Its theme – Water Challenges for Coastal Cities – seems ideally suited to proving our special relationship. 

Water truly connects us. 

It is an honour to join such a distinguished group of planners, policymakers and practitioners. 

You are all working to make cities resilient and citizens safe. 

That is a very important cause, and I share your commitment to it. 

I am also happy to share the stage with Secretary Shaun Donovan. 

I know that he, too, shares your commitment. 

Shaun’s Department and my Ministry are partnering, innovating and sharing best practices, to ensure that our coastal cities adapt well to an uncertain future and remain well-protected, economically viable and attractive.  

And I am greatly impressed by the success of your efforts last year towards rebuilding this area. 

Completing a Task Force report in such a short time-frame is a major achievement. 

Knowing from experience how much work is involved, I congratulate you on this accomplishment! 

The Netherlands is honoured to be part of this process and to be seen as an expert in this field. 

But this places a huge responsibility on our shoulders. 

Because we must constantly live up to our reputation. 

A reputation that is born out of necessity. 

In the Netherlands we learned our lessons over the course of more than eight centuries. 

We developed an integrated approach to water-related issues. 

By having different tiers of government work closely together. 

And by combining water safety with the quality of nature. 

But also by setting up a special government fund for water safety and water quality. 

And introducing a special tax designed for the same purpose. 

But despite this experience, we cannot afford to lean back. 

We must constantly anticipate the issues of the future. 

Because our people need safety to prosper. 

And our economy needs safety to grow. 

So we need to keep re-evaluating our strategies. 

We need to develop new integrated approaches, to meet new challenges. 

Challenges we all face: in the United States, in the Netherlands and in the rest of the world. 

First: how do we adapt to rising sea levels and longer periods of severe rainfall and severe drought? 

And second: how do we do this, given that our cities are growing and are often situated in low-lying, flood-prone areas? 

These trends raise new questions. 

Questions that need new answers. 

They confront us with new dilemmas. 

Of course, we don’t have all the answers. 

But we’re finding some along the way. 

Let me give you an example from the Netherlands. 

It comes from our third biggest city, The Hague. 

The seaside town of Scheveningen is a part of the city and borders the North Sea. 

It has a beautiful boardwalk along the coast. 

Millions of tourists flock here every year, so it has great economic value. 

It is a place I love to go to, and look out over the calm waters of the North Sea. 

But we all know that calm seas can be deceptive. 

Water is immensely powerful; it can sweep away everything in its path. 

Just think back of the images of hurricane Sandy. 

That boardwalk is also the main line of defence against that enormous power. 

Just a couple of hundred meters behind it lies The Hague, home to over half a million people.

So it’s crucial for us to combine economic, safety and spatial interests. 

As you can see here from this picture, we have achieved this in recent years. 

We built a new boardwalk that is also a dyke.  

It’s a great place to stroll or cycle along the sea front. 

It fits beautifully into its surroundings. 

But it is also a brand new line of defence for all the people living behind it. 

It even has two footbridges that are designed to break up without harming the dyke, should disaster strike.

Another dyke – built into the boardwalk in the nearby town of Katwijk – even has a parking garage inside it. 

This boardwalk is just one example of our approach in the Netherlands. 

But I know all too well that this particular solution won’t work everywhere. 

Although water issues are a global challenge, they take different forms around the world. 

As do the solutions and approaches to these issues. 

So the answers for The Hague are not necessarily the answers for New York City. 

But we can profit from each other’s experience. 

We all have to constantly weigh up our options: 

Is a storm surge barrier the best type of flood defence? 

Should we abandon certain areas because they are too prone to flooding? 

Or should we focus on designing cities so that they can cope with occasional flooding? 

And what is the best method of evacuation? 

Our goal should be to combine all these options into one integral strategy. 

And that is difficult, because the situation constantly changes.

So we have to respond by constantly adapting our approach. 

And we have to weigh up interests and seek the best expertise. 

In the Netherlands, for example, we have a lot of experience in building physical infrastructure. 

Like dykes, levees and storm surge barriers. 

But when it comes to evacuation methods and adaptive spatial planning we can learn a lot from other countries, like the United States. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

The Dutch approach does not provide all the answers. 

It is about tackling dilemmas and devising strategies. 

It is about design, trial and error. 

That is why Secretary Donovan and I are so eager to invest in each other’s knowledge. 

To work together on specific areas. 

And to foster dialogue and partnership between experts. 

Between the business world, knowledge institutions and different tiers of government. 

That is also why I am happy that Dutch water experts are working on projects in over eighty [80] different countries. 

Every new project or challenge leads to new expertise. 

And that expertise is useful not only to us, but to the whole world. 

Water issues are like a giant jigsaw puzzle. 

A jigsaw that we can never finish, because its shape is constantly changing. 

But it is also the finest challenge we face. 

Because what could be more important than preserving the lives of everyone on the planet? 

We all have a personal stake in the outcome. 

And a global responsibility. 

We have a moral and practical obligation to use our expertise to help other countries all over the world. 

That is why I am in favour of a special United Nations Committee to enhance water safety around the world. 

Of course, such a committee can’t be set up overnight. 

But if we – the United States and the Netherlands – join hands and commit our expertise to this cause, we can really make a difference. 

In the meantime, let us use this conference to share as much knowledge as we can. 

So that we can find solutions to the main challenges facing us now and in the future. 

Solutions that make our cities safer and strengthen their economies. 

That make them more resilient. 

And that make our lives safer. 

Thank you very much.