8.The Netherlands

Despite limited natural resources and vulnerability to flooding, Holland has become a highly successful agricultural and industrial nation thanks to a sophisticated system of dikes, pumping, and draining. However, with half of the country below sea level and a rapidly growing population, Holland is also rapidly growing population, Holland is also heavily polluted. One sign of this environmental decline: the otter, whose presence indicates water quality and healthy riparian ecosystems, is now extinct in Holland

Holland in particular has the problem of post-war industrial development and pollutants taking decades to percolate through to the groundwater. This is causing a lot of worries in Holland – sort of like a bomb ticking away. And once you’ve contaminated the groundwater source, it’s almost impossible to clean. Being located on lowlands makes the Dutch rely heavily on groundwater, but it also means the water is even more vulnerable to contamination.

Flowing from eastern Switzerland through Germany to its North Sea delta in Holland, the Rhine River deposits industrial pollutants along its banks and into the sea. In recent years the EU has been working to “depollute” the North Sea as one of its many transnational projects. And the best news is that fish are now coming back to live in the Rhine.

Nearly half of Holland borders the North Sea, making it an area of particular concern. Persistent organochlorines are draining into the North Sea , not just from Holland but from Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom. Studies have shown a buildup of the organochlorine toxaphene in mackerel, dolphins, and porpoises in the North Sea, especially around Ireland and Scotland. But toxaphene has never been used in Europe. It is believed the chemical may have traveled for years from the United States or the Caribbean, where it was once used in cotton production. Toxaphene was banned in the United States in 1982.

In response to environmental degradation, the Dutch have developed a National Environmental Policy Plan (NEPP) that is rapidly attracting international interest. In presenting the plan in 1989, the Dutch government announced that “unless we set a different course quickly and resolutely, we are heading for an environmental catastrophe.

Therefore, the NEPP initially deals with environmental hazards caused by traffic, curbing carbon dioxide emissions, taking remedial action in cases of soil contamination, tackling acidification, and gaining better control of the entire waste chain.” For example, the NEPP “seeks a fertilizer balance” to handle problems caused by agriculture and industry. Under NEPP guidelines, groundwater must meet standards similar to those of drinking water; no more phosphate and nitrate may enter water and soil than can be absorbed through natural processes.

With its concentration of petrochemical industries, the shipping city of Rotterdam, considered the largest port in the world, is also the most polluted city in Holland. Amsterdam is moderately is moderately polluted in part because of chips travelling through the canals and sediments discharged from several sites. However, it’s not very clear what the exact sources of pollution are in the canals. There are also pesticides from agricultural uses, and although the insecticide DDT is banned, there are still traces detectable in the environment.

Inland lakes are also subject to pollution, which migrates along streams, and through underground leaching.