Water board taxes to jump by 10 percent next year
The water board tax will increase by an average of 10 percent next year. That is partly due to inflation. “But taxes will also increase in subsequent years. We must do much more to protect the Netherlands against the consequences of climate change. There is simply no other option,” Rogier van der Sande, chairman of the Union of Water Boards, told Het Parool.
According to the water boards, the government will need to push much more money into ensuring the Netherlands is designed in a future-proof way in the coming decades. “The next Cabinet must start with this. And a lot of money needs to be set aside for it. That may not be a popular message during election times, but it is reality,” said Van der Sande.
On Monday, the meteorological institute KNMI presented climate scenarios based on the current science and situation. The news isn’t good. The Netherlands can expect wetter winters with increasingly severe rainfalls and hotter and dryer summers with extended periods of droughts. Sea levels will also rise more than initially expected. In the worst-case scenario, the sea level will be 2.5 meters higher than it is now by 2100.
That means that the dikes in the Netherlands must be raised even higher than currently planned in the Flood Protection Program. And that will have many consequences. Firstly, the current budget of 13.7 billion euros won’t be enough. And higher dikes require meters of extra space around them, which will come at the expense of housing construction plans and maybe even existing homes near dikes. “It is a realistic scenario that we will have to give up homes for this type of climate control in the future,” Jeroen Haan, dike director of the Stichtse Rijnlanden Water Board, told the newspaper.
The Netherlands will also have to reserve space in polders and in nature, where extra water can drain during extreme rainfall and be stored for droughts. In the event of downpours, water will be much less able to flow from rivers into the sea in the future because of the rising sea levels. So, space must be created inland. That will also come at the expense of housing construction plans. “But if you don’t do it now, you will get yourself in trouble in the long run. A long-term vision is needed. There must be rules for where you can and cannot build,” Van der Sande said.
Haan can’t say by how much the government will have to up its flood protection budget. “The uncertainty about what awaits the Netherlands is still too great to put exact amounts on it. But it is certain that much more will be needed in the long term.”
