Shifting blame in the Westerschelde debacle

Why did the decision making process over the dredging of the Westerschelde go so terribly wrong that it has now soured relations between the Netherlands and Belgium? The Dutch parliament would like to know too and has summoned prime minister Balkenende to explain his role.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende last week promised that the Netherlands would meet its commitment to Belgium to dredge the Westerschelde, the main waterway to the port of Antwerp in Belgium, the third biggest in Europe.

The announcement was a reaction to anger in Belgium over the refusal of the Netherlands to carry out its part of the dredging work. Local politicians in Antwerp even called for a boycott of mussels from Zeeland, the Dutch province that straddles the Westerschelde.

Old grievances

But Balkenende's promise doesn't get rid of the main obstacle to the dredging work on the Dutch side: a ruling by the council of state, an advisory body to the Dutch government and the supreme court in administrative law, which ordered the work halted because of the impact it would have on the environment.

The July ruling, which is binding, followed a complaint by Dutch environmentalist groups, but some members of parliament are now saying that it is not so much the environmentalists that have brought about the impasse over the Westerschelde as the Dutch government itself.

The Westerschelde has been a source of conflict between the two countries for centuries. Long before Belgium even came into existence when it seceded from the Netherlands in 1830, the Dutch blockaded the Westerschelde, and consequently the port of Antwerp, on several occasions in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. After World War I, which the Netherlands sat out, Belgium tried but failed to claim Zeeland as compensation for the war.

'Depoldering'

In 2005 Belgium and the Netherlands agreed to jointly deepen the sea-lane to allow container ships with a sea-gauge of up to 13.1 metres to reach the port of Antwerp. The agreement included a provision to compensate for the environmental damage by returning a piece of reclaimed land, the Hedwige polder, to the sea. The process is referred to as 'ontpolderen' ('depoldering') in Dutch, and experts agreed it was the best way to restore the natural balance in the Westerschelde after dredging.

But in April of this year the Dutch government simply abandoned the 'depoldering' option - despite the fact that two separate commissions said it was the best solution, the Dutch parliament had agreed to it and experts said the government's alternative of creating wetlands outside the dykes was unworkable.

This Monday, three parties in the Dutch parliament - coalition partner ChristenUnie and opposition parties GroenLinks (Green party) and D66 (left-wing liberal party) - demanded an explanation from prime minister Balkenende. They want to know why Balkenende decided to abandon the 'depoldering' option.

A reconstruction by NRC Handelsblad recently revealed that the prime minister, who is originally from Zeeland, was personally involved in the government's decision. According to Ed Nijpels, a former politician who presided over the second Westerschelde commission, "the prime minister at the last minute overruled his expert ministers."

Missed earnings

GroenLinks member of parliament Ineke van Gent, believes it is the prime minister and not the environmentalists groups who is to blame for the debacle. "It was Balkenende who sabotaged the existing agreement, which he himself had signed, and now he is trying to blame the environmentalist groups for the delay. It is very dishonest," said Van Gent.

If the government hadn't scrapped the depoldering option, the Green party said, "the council of state would have had no reason to halt the dredging work, and everything would have been hunky-dory with our southern neighbours".

The prime minister of the Flemish region of Belgium, Dirk Peeters, has reacted positively to Balkenende's promise last Friday. But sources close to the Flemish government told the Belgian newspaper De Morgen on Monday that Flanders is considering withholding a 300 million euros payment to the Netherlands. The money was meant for the 'depoldering' of the Hedwige polder.

Flanders is also considering sending the Dutch government the bill for a dyke that will have to be constructed if the Netherlands will not go ahead with returning its part of the Hedwige polder to the sea. Work on the Belgian side of the Hedwige polder, which stretches to the port of Antwerp, has already started.

Antwerp port authorities say the Dutch delay is costing the port 70 million euros in missed earnings every year. It also adds to traffic congestion and pollution around Antwerp because more freight is transported by road.

According to the 2005 agreement the dredging work was supposed to be finished in 2010.