In the Netherlands, there are 25 water boards. A water board is the oldest democratic form of government. In the 14th century some land owners and farmers made arrangements to cope with the problem of water nuisance and flood. In order to protect their farmland they built dykes and started using windmills to pump the water surplus off their lands. In this way they were not only able to protect their lands, they could also create new land, the so called reclaimed marshland.
Nowadays more than 50% of this land would be inundated if there were no dunes and dams to protect property and goods against storms at sea and high water in the rivers. The many dykes, locks, pumping stations, flood barriers, canals and ditches keep the Netherlands habitable. So water management still is an important task in our lowlands. And this important task rests largely on the shoulders of the water boards. The water boards are also responsible for balancing the different and sometimes conflicting interests of water management. This is done in cooperation with central government, the provincial and municipal authorities and other interested parties.
