Netherlands unprepared for consequences of heavy rain: Dutch Safety Board
The Netherlands is still unprepared for the safety risks caused by extreme rainfall, while such downpours are becoming increasingly common due to climate change, the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) said on Thursday. Current measures are lagging behind the pace at which extreme rainfall is increasing. Heavy rain is already disrupting vital infrastructure and causing social disruption and insecurity. 47 Dutch neighborhoods are extremely vulnerable to flooding, NOS reports.
According to the OVV, the government and relevant authorities are underestimating the dangers of extreme rainfall, which means that administrative and political priorities remain low. The current measures are still too often small-scale and done “in an informal and non-binding setting” with no concrete objectives.
This is not a new problem, the OVV said. Draining capacity has been declining for years due to urbanization, and it has been abundantly clear for many years that global warming is leading to more extreme weather, including very heavy downpours.
The OVV conducted a detailed analysis of three recent flooding incidents. On July 21, 2024, the emergency room of the Slingeland Hospital in Doetinchem flooded. The emergency room was closed for seven hours as rainwater flooded the facility and toilets overflowed. All areas had to be dried and disinfected before the hospital could start treating emergency patients again.
The impact was limited, but could have been so much worse, the OVV said. If a hospital’s emergency room is inaccessible due to a rainstorm, it could have serious consequences for people in an emergency. “This could have happened because of the simultaneously occurring Zwarte Cross event and because the roof of a business premises in Doetinchem, next to which an indoor playground was located, collapsed due to the rain,” the OVV said.
Late in 2023, a rainstorm caused an outage at a power distribution station near Nijverdal. The power went out for over 11,000 electricity connections and was off for over five hours. According to the OVV, the grid operator underestimated the risks of extreme rainfall and knew little about the climate risks at that location.
And, also on July 21, 2024, the low-lying neighborhoods of Pathmos and Stadsveld in Enschede flooded. Over 80 houses were covered in water. Sewage caused significant damage, and residents suffered health problems due to rising damp. Ultimately, 57 households had to be relocated. In April last year, the municipality determined that there were no short-term solutions to prevent these homes from flooding again and declared them uninhabitable.
According to the Dutch Safety Board, 47 neighborhoods in the Netherlands are just as vulnerable to flooding and the consequences thereof as Pathmos. These neighborhoods have a combination of vulnerable locations, vulnerable homes, and residents in vulnerable positions.
The OVV urged the involved governments to develop an approach for the most vulnerable neighborhoods to mitigate the risks of extreme rain. It suggested increasing sewer capacity, constructing more water storage facilities, and protecting the power supply and hospital access. The government should also adapt the law to make it easier for the KNMI to issue early weather warnings, establish concrete requirements for climate-resilient homes and key infrastructure, and share information about water levels and stress tests more widely.
