Next month, on March 15, elections will be held in the Netherlands not only for the Provincial Assembly, but also for the 21 water boards. They’ve always been there for dry feet, weir and pumping station maintenance, and clean water, but in a changing climate with more extreme weather, they’re faced with increasingly complex decisions and conflicting interests. Back or pumping water? Place for the river or for recreation and construction? And should the groundwater level rise or fall?
The latter is a particularly sensitive issue in Dutch peat meadow areas. At least half of the 270,000 hectares of peat in the Netherlands is used by farmers. They benefit from a low water table: This allows them to work the land and the cows don’t have their feet in the mud.
The water boards therefore kept the water level in these areas artificially low. But such a low level is not good for the climate, because too much CO2 escapes from the drained peat – that’s about four percent of the Netherlands’ total annual emissions. Many homes are also sagging due to the rapid collapse of dry peat soils.
Problems with peat are a major problem at the Wetterskip Fryslân water association in Friesland. There are more than 70,000 hectares of peat there, with about 900 farms on it. One of them is Haye Ketelaar’s dairy farm in Heeg.
The water table below his land is now an average of 80 centimeters below ground level. But he has to believe it too. “You’re talking about -60 or even -40,” she says worriedly. -20 is considered the ideal location to keep as much CO2 on the ground as possible. “But you can’t do anything with it, then I’ll stop too.”
Less grass grows when the water level is high. Ketelaar now grows it as fodder for their cows. Less weed means less yield: “What is your income model?” Dairy farmer Jaap Formsma also asks himself this. He has a farm with 210 cows in Groote Veenpolder and he touches on another sensitive point: “My cows don’t have webbed feet. He should have kept them in,” says Formsma. “So you lose a traditional Dutch scene as well.”
‘Water Retention Champion’
Sjoerd Galema is the party leader of the CDA and defends the interests of farmers in Friesland. “We have to take a close look at where something is possible,” says Galema, who was formerly an MP for the state of Friesland and director of the dairy company FrieslandCampina. “In some places this means rising groundwater levels. But it is also important that we can continue farming in this province. What perspective do you have? You should know this before you raise the water level.”
Monique Plantinga of the “green” party Water Naturally also wants farmers to stay in Friesland. She also wants to “become a water retention champion,” she says. In some cases, this means sacrificing farmland.
Things are not going fast enough right now, he says: “Tonnes of CO2 are released into the air from peat every day. While taking many small steps one has to think about big decisions: putting in some of it.” Shall we move on to growing succulents? These are the conversations we should have.”
The water table also underpins another theme of Plantinga’s campaign: “Don’t disappoint your citizen”. According to Plantinga, thousands of wooden foundation homes in Friesland are at risk of collapsing due to constantly falling water levels.
Ellen Dekker has already come this far. Your historic farm in Groote Veenpolder is getting further and further away. “There are more and more cracks.” The damage would have gone to the barrels anyway.
Decided from above
This year’s water council elections are different from previous years. Previously, about a third of the water association’s board consisted of “safe seats”: seven to nine permanent seats for farmer interest groups, nature associations and business.
The latter was removed through a legislative initiative by D66 and GroenLinks. This gives voters greater influence over the composition of the board. Monique Plantinga welcomes the change and hopes it puts more weight on the “green voice”.
But dairy farmer Haye Ketelaar isn’t happy with the disappearance of permanent seats. “In the past, water levels were regulated by the farmers themselves. My main concern is that knowledge, practical agricultural knowledge, is lost in committees. These decisions are made from above without consulting us.”
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
