Delta Commissioner’s weblog - week 22 2010
Further progress on the Delta Programme
On 25 and 26 May, I made a working visit to the IJsselmeer region. It was a highly interesting visit in which I spoke with the IJsselmeer Region programme organisers, the managers in the region, civil society organisations, “innovators” and the media. The visit began and ended in Lelystad and took me to Enkhuizen, the IJsselmeer coast of Noord-Holland, the Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike, including the Stevinsluizen lock complex), Makkum (in Friesland), Kampen (in Overijssel), the Veluwe Randmeren and Flevoland. (You can find a report and a video about this visit elsewhere on this website).
At all the locations mentioned, one of the possible options for securing the freshwater supply for the future will mean a perceptible rise in water level. However, we have not yet reached that point. We are first going to set out the consequences and determine a preferred strategy for freshwater. Last Thursday, I spent the greater part of the day with the programme leaders and principals of the sub-programmes. We discussed all nine action plans and questioned one another about them. My staff and I mainly contributed to their cohesive integration into the Delta Programme. The state and regional stakeholders in the sub-programmes did a lot of very good work in a short space of time. I expressed my sincere appreciation for their efforts.
On the last day of the working week, I discussed several subjects with the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Transport, Pubic Works and Water Management (my successor there). Directly afterwards I ran through my visit to and speech at the International Singapore Water Week (at the end of this month) with our ambassador in Singapore Johannes Jansing, and a member of his staff. I am very honoured to be representing the Netherlands as a speaker during the plenary session and in one of the workshops; it will enable me to explain our “Delta approach” to thousands of participants. It would be a good thing if the knowledge institutions and business community were to join in this.
And then the working week was over – once we had dealt with the mail.