Financing

Technical solutions are expensive

Protecting our country against the water is expensive, very expensive. Maintenance and management costs of the Delta works alone amount to 0.4 billion euro per year. Draining polders and raising dikes is not cheap either. These costs are accepted because the safety of our country is worth it. However, some of these technical solutions are effective only in the short-term; and what is worse, they sometimes exacerbate the problem they are supposed to solve, in the long-term.

Cheaper alternatives

Studies show that the costs of climate buffers are more or less compensated by the benefits. These analyses do not even account for benefits such as preservation of cultural-historical heritage, restoration of natural ecosystems, and new opportunities for recreation and waterfront housing development. If we include these benefits into the equation, natural climate buffers are an attractive, viable alternative to expensive technical solutions.