OUR Dutch government announced today a water scarcity situation due to an unusually dry summer and a projected lack of precipitation over the next two weeks.

Heatwaves swept across much of Europe and the United States last month, prompting calls for greater efforts to combat warming, with scientists noting that heatwaves are becoming more frequent and deadly.

With two-thirds of the Dutch population living below sea level, droughts can become a major problem in the country, flooding rivers and blocking waterways.

Another problem arises from the “drying” of dams – many of them require the weight of the water itself to remain strong.

“We have been seeing increasingly dry weather in the Netherlands for several weeks due to evaporation in our country and very low river flow from abroad,” said Michelle Blom of the country’s Public Works and Water Management Agency, which is tasked with overseeing the special operational drought group.

At the moment, barges on the lower Rhine – an important route for transporting coal from Rotterdam to German steel mills and power plants – are less than half operational.

The Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport said that as of yesterday Tuesday, the flow of water in the Rhine was 850 cubic meters per second in Lobit, the eastern city where it flows into the Netherlands, which is “extremely low for this time of year.”

The level is better in the Mosas, which flows from France to Holland.

Iselmer, a large man-made lake in the north of the country, formed by the North Sea in the 20th century, is deep enough to supply water to the province of Groningen.

However, the water table is declining and “very low in some areas in the south,” the ministry said, leading to large amounts of algae and fish deaths.

Does not affect drinking water.

Regional water authorities are urging citizens to conserve water, while the southern provinces of Zeeland and Limburg are asking citizens not to use surface water for irrigation, a measure that affects farmers.

Source: APE/MPE.