Toespraak van minister Schultz van Haegen bij de ondertekening van de Letter of Intent on Land Reclamation

Toespraak | 18-06-2015

This Letter of Intent underscores the excellent partnership between the Netherlands and Bangladesh in the area of land reclamation. It's a partnership that goes back many decades. 

Now we're going to take it to the next level. And we'll specifically be looking at the role private parties can play.

Our countries lie 13 hours’ flight time apart, but share common challenges – like land reclamation.

At the same time, the challenges facing Bangladesh are of a different order: your population is growing rapidly and you have a pressing need for more land.

The rivers flowing through your country create new land by depositing large quantities of sediment. But the same rivers also cause erosion and loss of land. I've been told that some 26,000 people here lose their land every year. They need to look for a new place to make a living. The Netherlands today is not exposed to dynamics of this scale.

But we do recognise your need for new land: 18 per cent of our country is reclaimed land. We have been building polders for 8 centuries.

And we're still learning. These days, for instance, we build with nature, not against it. And we make room for the rivers, so that they can flood in a controlled way.

The question is not: how do we keep the polders dry? But: how do we deal with water in the polder? (I'm thinking of farming and water use, and salt-tolerant crops.)

We've had good experiences with strong public-private partnerships. They offer benefits in terms of both technology and financing.

We would like to share that expertise with Bangladesh. So I look forward to our continued cooperation.