Shoutout to Paul for saying "Rijkswaterstaat" perfectly ;)

Isnt it masterfull? There are so many Dutch people who dont even realise how important this is and how unique it is. Great reaction once again.

As an engineer, I always get a bit emotional when I see footage of these storm surge barriers closing. I’d love to go see one of the test runs irl

I worked as a security guard at the Maeslandtkering. It was always very scary when the wind took on and the tide came high. I live 10 minutes from the Maeslantkering and when alarm went off you knew the next two days you won’t go home. You stay there until the water drops to normal level. But the times you see the water level rise, the doors close and how spooky it gets after that, is very impressive and scary. Because you know, at 10 minutes distance your house, your family, your town and everything you love is there. But I always loved working there! My grandmother lived through the Watersnoodramp. In her house you can see on the stairs to the attick to where the water came in that time. My grandmother sat for days with her mother and two daughters on the attick waiting for the water to drop. The markings on the stairs is always a reminder for our family.

To put it in perspective. Each of those sliding doors in the Haringvlietkeerring are as big as the Eiffel tower in Paris. So it's like two Eiffel towers sliding together when they close up.

Once I heard the statement "The sea doesn't negotiate" and that's why NL built these giant constructions. Good comments HxC. 👍👍

My former boss studied at Delft Technical University during the time this all was thought out. He had good stories about that. What I still remember was that he told that there had to be a lot of inventions in material science, shipbuilding for the special ships, and even new inventions in mathematics to make this all work. But even less obvious branches of science had to step up. Project planning did things nobody ever did before, biologists invented new ways of studying marine life to see what the dams would do to ecosystems and sociologists had to find ways of measuring feelings of safety and anxiety to assess how high the bar for safety in relation to the cost had to become. All new innovative science back in the sixties. Lastly, the Delta works cost more than the whole Appolo project to land a man on the moon and was just as complex. Not bad for such a tiny country, huh? An extra factor is above moon rockets: Delta works must last for a long, long time. Still, new problems arise. The ever rising sea water sips through under the dikes and it causes rising river levels too. In the end, it will be a losing battle. But we can say we resisted with all we had.

I live near the Hartelkering and have visited the Maaslantkering many times with visiters from all over the world. People are impressed but i allways get the question ' who's paying for it?' My answer is always 'I am.... and my 18 million countrymen'. When you do the calculation you pay 50cts a year for your family to be safe. Ofcause we pay more because there is a lot more to maintain to keep our feet dry.

I'm a very proud sub-contractor engineer who works to maintain some of these installations.

i am so incredibly proud of the mechanical engineers of that time who today let me sleep peacefully because i don't have to worry because of their incredible knowledge !! after all, I have been living 3 meters below sea level for 70 years

Just think about it. These are the primary defences. There are a lot of secondary, tertiary defences and so on. At the same time, we're not just in danger from the sea. Rivers are just as important, which is why the room for the river program exists. A sort of strategic retreat to try to live in harmony with the rivers instead of fighting like hell.

Honestly if you're on the team that either made or maintains these structures, people having the luxury to take them for granted should be the biggest compliment in the world. That means you do your job so splendidly that people don't even realize the constant state of danger they're in at any given moment if it weren't for you.

Ok, this video literally gave me goosebumps. Awesome to watch this with the same awe as you did Highly!

Since last year I’ve been working for Rijkswaterstaat and I’ve become very proud of everything the organisation does. If you know what to look for it’s everywhere you look. But most people, like myself in the past, take it for granted because they don’t know what it was like before.

Visited some of the locations in the video with my family as a kid. The watermanagement is something that makes me most proud to be Dutch. Also the Afsluitdijk, which is 32 kilometers and built in 1927, keeps amazing me.

Millions of Dutch do not realize the impact of all that ingeneering. (I didn't have a clue myself 😢)

Superb video, isn’t it! I was born in February 1953, in the north side of Rotterdam - while the south of Rotterdam was the (northern) border of the disaster area. In other words: my parents lived in the safe part. Yet the thoughts of the disaster returned with every storm.

Your reactions are “Dam” right 😂👍💪🏼💪🏼

Ad a Dutchie myself I never seen this documentary before. Thanks for sharing and your comments.

As a Dutchman I become even more proud. Thank you for all your info videos.

thank you Paul for sharing, i live in Amsterdam and i knew a lot about the storm defence but this clip gave me a new higher respect for all those people working for Rijkswaterstaat and keeping us safe. 90% of this info was new to me. you taught a lot today and it makes me so gratefull for what is accomplished in my country. btw your pronounciation is being so good, soon you can disguise yourself as a dutchie

It gives me goosebumps and tears of pride for the people who devised and executed these masterpieces. Thanks to the delta works, we still have dry feet here.

This video diserves a lot more vieuws. That was fantastic. Lot of people don’t reallise wat it takes to live in a country like the Netherlands with “Dry Feet”. Loved it.

I work at the academy of building and infrastructure. A month ago we took our students on a tour of the deltaworks, it's so incredibly impressive! The scale of things doesn't translate well to the screen. Just walking through the foundations of those dams makes you feel so small. Incredibly proud of the engineering skills and imagination of those before us and proud to be teaching the next generation of civil engineers who have to make sure that our feet remain dry.

✔You only realize how big, massive and ingenious the whole is when you've been there and seen it with your own eyes. At one of them I walked under the construction, the "Maeslantkering" from the ball joint to the pontoon. I could then and still can only describe it with one word "Gigantisch" "Gigantic".

Live in the US and became US citizen, but still.feel more DUTCH even after 50 years here and proud to still be Dutch

The barier with the 4 towers in the"Hollandse IJssel" was the first build in 1958 and is in my hometown Krimpen aan den IJssel.

For many Dutch people including myself, being safe for nature is self-evident. But when you see these images you will think differently. Thank you for these images that I have not seen before

Us folks being so goddamn good with your facial expressions killed me 😂😂😂

"Hier gaan over het tij, de maan, de wind en wij." Makes me bloody proud of our engineers.

I live near the lowest point,-6,76m it has a marker there with the number on it, but still not always realizing that we are that far under sea level. Shout out to the people who try to keep the water at bay.

As a former Contractor at the Maeslant and Hartelkering i can only say... YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!!! This film cannot show how HUGE everything is. Those trusses at the Maeslankering for instance, you can walk inside those. That will be done every year to check the cables that powers all the electronics and pumps inside the kerende wand (the half moon that hold the water back). Also the scale of the entire structure is massive. The entire structure off one side of the Maeslantkering is as big as the Eifeltower... I could go on and on but if you ever going to visit the Netherlands and go visiting the Maeslantkering i would love to go with you to give some more inside information.

Let's appreciate the amazing quality of this video, and the perfect subtitles as well. I am Dutch, when I was young I learned about all these Delta works in primary school. It was not much more than seeing some pictures of them in a book, some videos and maybe something more. We all forget that we need these dams, we see them but do not realize how important they are. I believe I live 2 meters below sea level, I am not even sure. I know that many people living in the west of the country (where everyone lives lower than 2 meters below sea level) are more aware of the delta works and what they do. A lot of people just take it for granted, as shown in this video. Last year, there were floods in Limburg in the south east of the country, that was because rivers could not deliver the amount of water in time. That got a lot of media attention, and things are changing because of climate change. I am sure that a lot of people are trying to prevent these floods, but again: we do not think about it. It is just normal that we have dry feet all the time, where we should be more aware why that is.

Living in the Netherlands is expensive we pay a lot of tax but this is one of the resins why. The other big project with water is our drinking water. We have good drinking water but we pay a lot for it. And all those US tourists don't understand that they have to pay for plain water in restaurants.

My father filmt the.oosterwerk keering olso i was little, , but should out to you Paul voor your perfect dutch, and yes i agree its a beautiful energering, thanks higly for this memory lane ❣️

Hxc you are great 👍 love this stuff dankje wel.

I am giving Rijkswaterstaat my love on a very frequent basis by paying a lot in taxes

I am from Zeeland and am proud of the Oosterscheldekering

At 4:15, remember Davina Michelle at the ESC2021 with "the power of water" interval act? She was standing there :) .

I live at around -6.45 below sea level. And we had an American exchange student living in our guest room, where we also store our emergency raft from our sailing boat when in winter storage. But he was convinced that we needed it for when the dikes broke.😂

It just kind of sinked in that the floodings were just 8 years after the end of the 2nd WW...after a rebuild they had to rebuild a lot again. my one word is : Brilliant

everyday when I drive on the ramspolbrug towards work I see the ramspolkering :)

I live in Hellevoetsluis, this is next to the "Haringvlietsluizen". I often cycle here, this is the place I grew up. What a great movie. Thank you watching and showing this to everybody.

I live near the Haringvlietdam. When the doors are closed, it is so impressive!

Paul my complements for 1001% pronouncing Rijkswaterstaat 👍👍 Love the video And your comments !!

Will you try this interesting video. How the Netherlands Helps Other Country’s with their Water Problems Maybe you’re also interested.

I live one meter under sealevel, and about 15 minuts drive from the "Oosterschelderkering". visited the waterpark dedicated to it many times, wich includes a permanent exposition in the dam itself. Drove on the motorway countless times. It still is amazing to see it for real.

There is this saying “God created the world, but the dutch created the Netherlands”

Proud to be working for over 20 years for this awesome organisation!

14:39 Simply put, every single opening to the sea needs to have some sort of system in place, and there also have to be backup systems further down the line. And in the end everything has to be extremely reliable because it has to work when it's needed, and it has to be able to withstand a storm of a magnitude that happens once in every couple of thoussand years. I never saw this documentary myself, but these things make me very proud of that small, silly country I live in. 24:58 When the Delta Works plans were made, the plan for the Oosterschelde was to make a dike around it just like the Afsluitdijk. However, there were a lot of protests from people living on the islands around the Oosterschelde, because that would be harmful for animal life in and around the Oosterschelde, and because fishing boats would't be able to get to the open sea from there anymore. With that in mind, the plans were changed to make it into a storm surge barrier that could be closed at will, so nature and fishermen would't be affected by it. Even back then, we're talking the 70's here, that played a major role in the decision making process.

I also worked at the Oosterscheldekering in my younger years, It was a very big project

I'm very proud of what we as a small country have done to keep out citizens safe from the sea, and from the other side as well, when all the rain and melted snow comes into our country from our neighboring countries. The last month especially, we've had a few storms and LOADS of rain, it's tricky at the moment, but it looks like we are getting through it without getting our feet wet. From this weekend on it will be dry for a few weeks at least. And we are so in need of sun and dry weather. Wintercold is coming in....Finally. thanks for this video, absolutely loved it. I never saw that bicycle tire before, it looks funny, but it does the job😊

If I am not mistaken the USA hired Dutch engineers to help protect the coast of the USA against flooding. The ocean is a force to be reckon with, so I love we can share our knowledge with counties to prevent catastrophic floods.

I always enjoy your analysis of your videos. It’s very insightful 🇨🇦♥️🇨🇦

Our last flood was in the 50ties. After the instalment of our stormfloedkeringen we never had a flood again! But it's mostly maintenaince. Not only on those buildings, they are our last resort. But every year there is a hugde ship spraying sand pumped from the sea bed onto the beaches to make our beached larger and better resistant to storms.

I’m proud the be Dutch as I see clips like this. All these investments are done to protect all citizens in the Netherlands.

I live in Spakenburg. An old fishing village on the Zuiderzee. Flevoland is now located. Really 600 meters from the harbor of Spakenburg. I live in a "fisherman's house".: From 1925, and is built 90 cm to 110 cm above the water level. And in the old harbour. A movable flood defense worth 7 million euros. The first of its kind. Greetings from Spakenburg, the Netherlands.

New dokters and what ever are such huge help Its getting better every year 😂

Born and raised at Voorne-Putten and we didn't worry about the water. Both parents were there in 1953, my mother was evacuated. But no worries. We know the dikes are there, we know what is done with them. Whenever you come to The Netherlands you can visit Neeltje Jans (Oosterscheldekering) for a nice exposition and you can even walk in part of the Oosterscheldekering itself.

I live very near Maeslandkeerring but I never go to see test closings. It is just a boring slow process (because it is so big). But still an impressive and important project of course! In the time it was constructed it was great fun there playing with my 4x4! 😁😎

Last year (End of December 2023) all of them (so all of the keeringen/barriers in NL) were closed due to storm from the Northsea from 1 side, and huge load of water via the rhine and maes from Belgium/Germany that wanted to go via NL to the Northsea. This was the first time that they were all closed at the same time, especially the mearkant keering, the 2 "half moons" protecting Rotterdam.

All these barriers have been built with a certain sea level rise in mind. The reality however is that sea level is rising *faster* than predicted. If there is a storm these barriers are closed but they only stick about three to four meters (9 to 12ft) above the maximum storm surge at that moment. And then the storm is not even yet the worst one. There is always this worst case scenario, like we had in 1953. A combination of a SUPER storm above the North Sea, pushing all the water into the (English) Channel and up against the Dutch Dikes, in combination with a super high tide. And of course in 1953 the country was just 8 years after WW2 so not all dikes and dams were fully repaired. It was just bad luck that year. But as being a Dutch man I am worried about sea level rising. Especially when I hear that an ice shell the size of Manhattan has been broken off Antarctica and is now flowing away from it, means more water into the ocean. More sea level rising. What we need is a place that is not used, a massive place, to give space to all this extra water. If for example we could dig out only 10% of the Sahara Desert and fill this up with sea water, then we could lower the average sea level. The center of Australia would also be nice, because nothing is there. Some people already have studied the idea of filling "the Qattara Depression" in Egypt, because it's a natural depression.

It's good to realize that the founder and most important engineer of the 1st version of the Deltaplans, Civil Engineer Johan van Veen, also called "The father of the Deltaplans", submitted his plans 2 days before the flood at februari, 1st 1953. Before the flood, Rijkswaterstaat ignored all Johan van Veen his advices and research from the moment he began to warn people for a flood in 1928.

I'll never get enough of our Deltawerken, it's such a point of pride for us Dutchies. Right next to a lot of the sluices and bridges throughout the country there are benches were the old folks sit to look at the engineering and the boat and ships passing by. You should join them some time. They've often worked in the industry and love to have a chat.

And that is the place where I live, near that first Delta work, the Hollandsche IJsselkering barrier. Yes, we realize we live about 4 to 5 meters below sea level, but it so common, we normally don't think about it... Until the storms start and the barrier is closed. Are we afraid? No, why should we? In case something happens, w 'll see than what to do. We'll be fine! As a Dutch inhabitant I'm proud of what the engineers invented to make the country safer. Today I sometimes think that a lot of people even do not realize what is done to make the country safe to live in.

1:52 this building is one i grew up with. I can see it out of my window

Mind blowing! Thank you to all who keep my feet dry! 🇳🇱👏👏👏🌷🌷🌷

The big difference between the US and the NL is that our government took responsibility and that’s why we pay taxes a lot higher then the US. Also the US government thinks, do it yourself, not our problem.

now you know why we are always talking about water and the weather.

How is it possible for people to live here and forget all the protection needs to be managed? Inhabitants of this country started at least about 2,000 years ago to protect themselves against flooding while living in the flood planes of the North Sea (branch of the Atlantic) on one side and the flood planes of a couple big rivers on the other. Knowledge and experience that got passed on. A culture of no beating around the bush - don't suggest it is nicer than it actually is. And, somewhere between 500 and 1000 years ago, "parallel governments" at different local levels and scales got installed to manage all this. Here too we have a difference between policy makers and executive.

My dad was an engineer working on the Oosterscheldekering, I lived close by, seen it up close during construction many times - even contributed my bit to flooding the build pits where they built the pillars ;)

Glad you used this video! So proud that my sister is one of those brilliant minds you mentioned.

Thnx that you liked the video I'm the guy with the last two words.

I have been whit all this object and was present whit tests fore maintenance. It is mindtaking but so ..... Amazing

The maaslandkering was closed due to high water last week for the first time since it was build

The Dutch are masters water-management.

Beautiful documentary, very nice reaction. Every once in a while I come across a video of the Delta Works and again realise that damn, those things are MASSIVE marvels of engineering. Nice that they also spent time on how maintainance is done.

Nederland at his finest 👌

When our governments still dared to dream and would plan things for the long term. ❤

In a way what Rijkswaterstaat is doing here something like a military defensie, just this enemy isnt a foreign country or something but a dangerous sea thats caused much pain in the passed. Knowing my father survived the 1953 floods with his parents and older sister it maken me thankfull and proud to have this defence on our side

Another video already! Can’t keep up😊

Watching this video I am so proud to be Dutch.

We see it soo regularly when we get there and still it's great. 🎉🎉🎉

I live near the one with the lighted up towers, then you really see when we actually need them. I have seen them diwn a couple of time's already, and i'm only 24, that makes me think sometimes

Its also the reason why the Dutch dont bitch about taxes when ir comes to the water management in the country. It is pay or drown... so no question about it. We dont mess about with water management or start haggling about its cost

The deltaworks truly are an outstanding piece of engineering.

Today 225 year Jubilee of ' Rijkswaterstaat '

And that's why Im proud of Dutch Delta works, I live near the Haringvliet keering and the Measland keering, great works that keep us dry

Just thanks for the message that we are loved❤

I never think about the fact that we are largely under water... the storm surge barriers make it feel so normal to be safe. If a storm comes, it is never a big deal as long as the barriers are not closed. As soon as they do close there is a feeling of alertness, but we are safe because everything works and there are professional people who continue to keep us all safe. I am very proud to be Dutch.

Hmm, those subtitles had quite a few misses... e.g. at 10:11 the word "kraan" can either mean crane or valve but in this context it should obviously be valve.

8.26 I had to cross that bridge to get to the other side of the river (cycling) to get to my High School.

This Januari all 6 storm surges werek closed.

Thanks Highly, being a Dutchy, this is the first time watching this video, i loved it!! I follow you since you reacted to Nightwish, until the next one, bye!!

I always wondered why people stayed and continue to live in dangerous places. Such as near volcanoes and on fault lines with many earthquakes and the like. Until at a certain point I realized that many people all over the world look at the Netherlands in the same way and wonder why we continue to live here in this low area, with the sea as our eternal enemy. Well, things like this do that for us, so that we really can forget how many meters below sea level we live, because of projects like this that protect the whole of the Netherlands so well that the risk of flooding (by the sea) is not really a thing anymore.

I live at the lowest point in the Netherlands, 6 meters (20 feet) below sea level, close to the IJsselkering. I never think about it

Funny to see how chauvinistic the Dutch are! Dealing with problems when it comes to water... Even our King has a degree in water management. Where there is a problem with water, especially from the ocean, call the Dutch. I still remember the horrible floodings in New Orleans. Where a small county can be big in knowledge while it is small in size. Thanks for sharing this video!

OMG the clip for Davina her song Water at Eurovision was filmed here!! You reacted to her clip exact 1 year ago

I live in Arnhem , 45 meters above sealevel. What are you talking about. 🤣🤣

What I like to know is, if there is a major electricity blackout, are storm surges able to close if necessary? Is there enough backup power or battery power for these occasions?