Foreword
Overcoming Drought and Water Shortages with Good
Governance
On June 20, 2013, a picture went viral on the Internet in which two students were
seemingly sailing through the shopping streets of Enschede, my hometown and the
biggest city in the region of Vechtstromen, a water authority in the east of the
Netherlands. After an extraordinary downpour it was the first time ever that these
streets were flooded. It was quickly forgotten that just days before this same city
was regarded a risky “hotspot” of unusually high inner city temperatures after a
long heat wave that caused many creeks in its rural surroundings to completely dry
out. This example is consistent with a general pattern in many areas in Northwest
Europe: weathers are often more extreme than they used to be and water management will have to cope with that, through increasing the resilience of our water
systems. This book, based on the many insights that are gathered from the project
“Benefit of governance in drought adaptation” (DROP, Interreg IVb NWE) provides an overview of a variety of drought situations in six areas in Northwest
Europe, the measures taken to improve these situations and especially an in-depth
treatment of the governance conditions that support or restrict the realization
of these measures.
The people in Northwest Europe that have always, and rightfully so, regarded
themselves as living in a water rich area not only need to get used to more weather
extremes, but especially to one of the extremes: drought. The availability of sufficient water of apt quality for purposes such as agriculture, nature, and service and
drinking water production has become less self-evident and will likely even become
less certain in the future. Each of these three functions gets special attention in the
comparative chapters in this book. Sufficient freshwater supply is also important for
shipping, use, and discharge of cooling water, and for flushing waterways in the
low-lying parts of the country to prevent saltwater intrusion in a country such as
the Netherlands. Generally, sufficient freshwater supply is a matter of utmost
importance as part of a good investment climate for economic activities that are
v
Overcoming Drought and Water Shortages with Good
Governance
On June 20, 2013, a picture went viral on the Internet in which two students were
seemingly sailing through the shopping streets of Enschede, my hometown and the
biggest city in the region of Vechtstromen, a water authority in the east of the
Netherlands. After an extraordinary downpour it was the first time ever that these
streets were flooded. It was quickly forgotten that just days before this same city
was regarded a risky “hotspot” of unusually high inner city temperatures after a
long heat wave that caused many creeks in its rural surroundings to completely dry
out. This example is consistent with a general pattern in many areas in Northwest
Europe: weathers are often more extreme than they used to be and water management will have to cope with that, through increasing the resilience of our water
systems. This book, based on the many insights that are gathered from the project
“Benefit of governance in drought adaptation” (DROP, Interreg IVb NWE) provides an overview of a variety of drought situations in six areas in Northwest
Europe, the measures taken to improve these situations and especially an in-depth
treatment of the governance conditions that support or restrict the realization
of these measures.
The people in Northwest Europe that have always, and rightfully so, regarded
themselves as living in a water rich area not only need to get used to more weather
extremes, but especially to one of the extremes: drought. The availability of sufficient water of apt quality for purposes such as agriculture, nature, and service and
drinking water production has become less self-evident and will likely even become
less certain in the future. Each of these three functions gets special attention in the
comparative chapters in this book. Sufficient freshwater supply is also important for
shipping, use, and discharge of cooling water, and for flushing waterways in the
low-lying parts of the country to prevent saltwater intrusion in a country such as
the Netherlands. Generally, sufficient freshwater supply is a matter of utmost
importance as part of a good investment climate for economic activities that are
v