Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lutha and I'm Meganolette. Spotlight uses a special
English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where
in the world they live. A city sits on the edge of the North
Sea. It is very old. Some of the buildings show this age,
but many are surprisingly modern. High glass structures mix with ancient churches, and
many canals run between these buildings. The Rhine River flows through the center of
the city. The city is beautiful, it is like nowhere else in the
world. This city is called Rotterdam. It is the largest city in the
country of the Netherlands, and this city has a rich history that goes back
over eight hundred years. But Rotterdam also has a problem. It is sinking.
In fact, much of the Netherlands is sinking. But why today's spotlight
is on this sinking country. The Netherlands has a long history of working with
water. Over one third of the country is below sea level. In eight
hundred BC, much of the land was not land at all. It was
under water, but soon people began moving earth into water that was not very
deep. They built large mounds higher than the water, called terps. These
terps let them build towns and villages. It let them expand toward the sea.
Over the years, the Dutch have develop eloped many ways of keeping water
out of the land. They built huge walls across lakes and the sea coast.
These walls, called dykes, helped them control the water. They kept
farmlands from flooding. The Dutch also pumped water out of some areas. The
dykes made sure the water would not come back and people could settle there safely.
The Dutch have been able to claim a lot of land using these methods.
In the nineteen sixties, they even created a new area. It is
called Flevoland. Working with water is very important to the Netherlands' success. It
helped the country to grow. It is still a very small country, but
today it is the seventeenth largest economy in the world. But removing water often
has a downside. Much of the Netherlands is built on peat, a special
kind of thick, decaying plant material. Usually peat rests on top of water.
When the water is gone, it can act like soil, but peat
is not very solid. When people put weight on it, it shrinks when
they build on it. The land slowly sinks. This is a process called
subsidence. Land subsides naturally in every place on Earth, but the process is
very slow. Normally, land will sink only three micrometers a year, that
is about the thickness of a piece of paper. But in the Netherlands it
is happening very quickly. In some places the land is sinking over two centimeters
each year. For the people of Rotta Dam, this is a very big
problem. Neat buildings there are very old, some were built hundreds of years
ago. They do not have good foundations. When the ground subsides, those
foundations can break. If people do not do something, the buildings may fall
over. But there is another reason why the country sinking is a problem,
climate change. All over the world, sea levels are rising. This means
that more areas of the Netherlands will be below sea level and they will be
more at risk from flooding. Whole cities will be in danger. It will
become harder and harder to keep them above water. But the people of the
Netherlands are not giving up. Instead, they are making plans for the future.
Some believe that the old methods will still work. The Dutch could continue
to build dikes and pump water, but as sea levels rise, the cost
of this method will go up as well. Instead, the Dutch are doing
something different. They are not completely keeping the water out. They are letting
some in. They call this the Room for the River program. In this
program, the Dutch ask people to leave some low areas near rivers, or
they repurpose public places. If there is a flood, these areas will fill
first. They will keep water out of larger cities and towns. Hans Doctor
is a Dutch ambassador. He spoke to Haret's news service about the effort.
That's the idea of living with the sea, living with the water. In
the past we tried to keep the water out as much as we could.
Now we join it much more to our living areas. The Room for the
River's project is part of a larger movement in the Netherlands. Subsidence and climate
change are already happening. The country will get lower and water levels will rise.
It will be impossible to stop the water completely. So the Dutch are
changing their lives. They are trying to live with the new situation. In
some places these changes have already begun. Stan Flea Wreckers is a farmer from
the Netherlands. The government bought his farm as part of the room for the
river project, but flear Wreckers did not want to move, so the government
built a large terp in the area. Flear Wreckers moved his farm onto the
terp. Now, when the area floods, there is water in his old
farmland, but he is living high above it. Many more people may soon
live like flear Ackers. The Dutch may build the land up instead of keeping
the water out, or they may make their homes with new building standards.
Some people may even build their houses on columns or pillars. These tall posts
will hold the building above the ground. When water comes, it will go
under. The land will still flood, but the flood will not harm anyone.
In Rotterdam, buildings are already made to hold or be above water.
These efforts are very expensive, but in the Netherlands it may be worth it.
Flea Wreckers spoke to the magazine Politico. It is not as expensive as
when a village is flooded. We spend a lot of money in Holland on
water management. We have to do it. If we do not, we
will be flooded. There will be no factories, no people will live here.
It will all be gone. Many other countries will soon need to think
about these solutions themselves. As climate change gets worse, many other cities will
be in danger of flooding. Cities like Bangkok, Jakarta, and New Orleans
are already dealing with the problem. No country can solve climate change by themselves.
Everyone must work together to handle the issue. But many countries may look
to the Netherlands as an example. They have a long history of dealing with
water. That history may be just what the future needs. Do you live
in a place threatened by climate change? What is your country doing to address
it? You can leave a comment on our website or email us add Radio
ad Radio English dot net. You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot
com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The
producer was Dan Christman. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and
the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.
You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at
www dot Radio English dot net. This program is called The Sinking Country.
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for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,