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WHY
THEDUTCH
BEAT
BACKTHESEA
by
John Ross Schroeder
For a thousand years the Dutch people have battled the North Sea.
Were it not for multiple thousands of acres of reclaimed land, half of Holland
would now be under water. What
secrets are locked up in these lO centuries of land reclamat ion?
T
HE STORY
of the Neth–
erlands is a story of
the sea!
Uniquely, the Dutch fulfill
an ancient prophecy pertaining
to one of the tribes of the so–
called lost 1O tri bes of the
House of Israel. Zebulun ' s
descendants were to "dwell at
the haven of the sea" and "be
for an haven of ships" (Gen.
49:
13). Moreover they were to
rejoice "in [their] going out"
(Deut. 33: 18) .
These ancient prophecies have
been fulfilled in the Dutch, a sea–
going, colonizing people. ls it
mere coincidence?
Reshaping the Coastline
Befare A.D. 1000, it is said that
the Dutch were content to "let
God's water flow over God 's land."
After that time they began to
resist the natural flow of the sea–
waters.
The prophet Jeremiah reveals
that God "placed the sand for the
bound of the sea by a perpetual
decree, that it cannot pass it: and
though the waves thereof toss
themselves, yet can they not pre–
vail; though they roar, yet can they
not pass over it" (Jer. 5:22).
22
God himself determined the
basic limits and boundaries of the
sea. Yet he permits nature to alter
the coastline over long epochs of
time. And he has allowed the
Dutch peoples to artificially extend
and straighten their coastlines.
A bou t 2,000 years ago the
Roman historian Tacitus described
what is now known as the Nether–
lands as an inhospitable area- nei–
ther land nor sea-a marsh inter–
sected by numerous creeks. No real
progres¡; carne about unti l a millen–
nium had passed . T hen the struggle
really began.
The first efforts were rather
primitive and could only be accom–
pl ished at Jow tide. Then carne the
invention of the windmill and later
the steam engine to pump out the
water rnuch more efficiently.
How Sea Becomes Land
In more modern times, the
reclaiming of land from sea has
been boiled down to quite a sim–
ple proccss known as impoldering.
1t is the conversion of su bmerged
land into fertile polders (a polder
is a piece of Jow-lying reclaimed
land) through dikes and drain–
age.
The first step is to build a dike
around that portian of sea area to
be reclaimed. When this con-
struction is completed there is, of
course, water sti ll on both sides
of the dike. This problem is sim–
ply solved by the careful place–
ment of one or more pumping
stations.
After the dike is closed , the
water is then drained out of the
designated area by modern pump–
ing equipment.
It
takes a number
of months, but the bottom of a new
THE NETHERLANDS TODAY-A
Kinderdyke windmill, right, dominates
landscape. Modern technology has
made tbe traditional Dutch windmill
obsolete. Below, left to right: statue
of Dr. Lely, father of the IJsselmeer
project; farmlands on a polder in the
region; downtown Amsterdam, one of
the great cities of Europe; the
IJsselmeerdam; a Dutch smile, with
Amsterdam residentia l a rea in
background.
The PLAIN TRUTH