Take 1 minute to type what you know about the Netherlands.
What is happening here? Why?
The Netherlands borders Belgium, Germany and The North Sea.
The Netherlands is very vulnerable to sea stroms and most of the country would flood in a bad storm. They used dikes (walls) to protect their towns but in 1916 the water broke through them.
Without a proper protection this is how much the Netherland would flood.
So they decided to build a massive dike (the Afsluitdijk)
Not only did it protect towns from flooding but they also created new land that is now used for farming. Half of the Netherlands is land that used to be under the sea.
In 1953, there was another huge sea storm the Afsluitdijk worked perfectly but in the south of the country, thousands died and the government said this would never happen again.
They built new dikes and dams but they had a big problem with putting a dam or dike at Rotterdam, the busiest seaport in the world. Why?
The Maeslantkering solved their problem.
