The Water is Coming! (2023)
Documentary series on the occasion of the 70th commemoration of the Flood disaster. Archival material and compelling eyewitness accounts map out how the disaster could unfold, how the impending danger was not sufficiently anticipated in advance and what we have learned from the disaster.
Seasons & Episode
Could the flood disaster have been prevented? In the aftermath of the Second World War, Walcheren was flooded to chase away the Germans and liberate Zeeland. The Braakman, an estuary of the Western Scheldt, was closed in 1952 and the whole of Zeeland took part in it. In between all this, hydraulic engineer and Rijkswaterstaat employee Johan van Veen wrote the first Delta Plan: well before the disaster he warned that the dikes could break.
“You have to keep going.” For years, this has been the motto in Zeeland and the other heavily affected areas in the Netherlands. There is little or no talk about the Flood disaster. In that respect there is a parallel with other major traumatic events in the 20th century, such as the Second World War.
What have we learned from the flood disaster and is that enough to keep the Netherlands dry? In the final episode, attention is paid to the discussion about the Delta Works, the battle against water, climate change, but also about opening up Zeeland, the growth of tourism in the province and the story of the Biesbosch. The consequences of the flood disaster, positive and negative, are discussed in this final episode.
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