IJSSELSTEIN: A twin-prop Chinook helicopter shatters the calm of the Dutch countryside, hovering just meters from a canal before dumping four huge sandbags into the water: welcome to Operation Cloudburst. The five-day exercise simulates catastrophic floods from a &quot;water bomb&quot;, an ever-present fear in a country where 60% of people live below sea level and climate change is making things worse. The operation, bringing together the military, crisis planners, and local water authorities, tests responses to 200 millimeters of rain falling in one day -- a quarter of the annual amount in the Netherlands. Such a scenario would be similar to the floods that devastated western Europe in 2021, with nearly 200 deaths in Germany and 40 in Belgium. No one died in The Netherlands but large areas were flooded. &lsquo;Fight the water&rsquo;&quot;Dutch people, when we are born, we know we&#39;re going to fight the water,&quot; said commanding officer Corporal Michel Vrancken. The military are always learning to fight the enemy, but &quot;Dutch people know that water can always be an enemy,&quot; the 25-year-old told AFP, as his unit piled up sandbags behind him. Vrancken&#39;s team is training to deploy an innovative mobile dam that could slow damaging floodwaters -- part of the exercise. Out of necessity, the Dutch have become world leaders in managing water and floods. Muddy swampIf nature had been left to take its course, most of The Netherlands would be a muddy swamp, not the European Union&#39;s fifth-largest economy. The country is essentially a large delta crossed by three major rivers, the Rhine, Schelde, and Maas, that flow into the unpredictable North Sea. Without sound defenses, 60% of the country would be regularly flooded, according to the government. That would affect some nine million people. &quot;If we want to stay in this country, we have to&quot; learn to prevent flooding, said Marian Booltink, crisis coordinator at the local flood management association, who is supervising Operation Cloudburst. &quot;Climate change is affecting my work because we now know we will have more crises because it&#39;s too dry (drought) or there&#39;s too much water (flooding),&quot; the 59-year-old told AFP. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&#39;Don&#39;t underestimate water&#39;&nbsp;</h2>Overseeing water levels and flood defenses across the country is Bart Vonk, Chair of the National Coordination Committee during Flood Threats. &quot;The impact of water on a person is immense,&quot; the 64-year-old told AFP from his office, surrounded by big screens showing real-time national water data. &quot;What I&#39;ve learned in my career is don&#39;t underestimate the force of water, but also don&#39;t underestimate the impact on people when their house is flooded,&quot; said Vonk. Vonk and his team ensure the country is ready for extreme scenarios: a drought meaning all inland shipping is beached or a devastating storm surge. The Dutch are bringing innovation and the latest technology to bear on a centuries-old problem. Drones inspect dykes and levies, producing data then crunched by AI to identify weaknesses. &lsquo;Very proactive&rsquo;Another innovation: &quot;Green eggs&quot; or devices that listen for beavers, whose digging can be devastating for flood defenses.What is the secret to the Dutch success? &quot;We stay very proactive,&quot; said Vonk.&nbsp;&quot;You have other countries that are reactive, they accept an incident. In the Netherlands, we can&#39;t accept it because the consequences are too high.&quot; However, he said the Dutch have also learned much from other countries, notably about recovery from major floods. &lsquo;More and more challenging&rsquo;Vonk acknowledges that climate change is making his job &quot;more and more challenging.&quot; Glacier melt from the Alps is swelling river levels in the Netherlands, storms and droughts are more frequent, and rising seas are increasing salination, he explained. His biggest fear would be a breach of a levee protecting the Netherlands -- &quot;the impact would be immense&quot;, but he is confident in Dutch preparations. &quot;I always sleep very well... we are really good protectors... the probability is really very, very low, so that&#39;s why it&#39;s not keeping me awake,&quot; said Vonk.

Europe

The five-day exercise simulates catastrophic floods from a ‘water bomb’, an ever-present fear in a country where 60% of people live below sea level and climate change is making things worse.

Operation Cloudburst: Dutch train for 'water bomb' floods

BEIJING: China&#39;s leading state-backed semiconductor association said Tuesday it &quot;firmly opposes&quot; Dutch authorities intervening over a European subsidiary of Chinese chip firm Wingtech. The Netherlands invoked the Goods Availability Act to take control of Dutch-based chip maker Nexperia in late September, citing national security concerns, a statement published by the Dutch government said Sunday. Blocked or reversed&nbsp;This means that while the company -- based in the Dutch city of Nijmegen -- can continue regular production, its decisions can be blocked or reversed by the Dutch government. The move was because of &quot;recent and acute signals of serious governance shortcomings and actions&quot; within Chinese-owned Nexperia, the statement said. The China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) on Tuesday said it supported its member Wingtech in safeguarding its rights and interests, slamming the Dutch authorities&#39; latest moves. &quot;We oppose the practice of abusing the concept of &#39;national security&#39; and imposing selective and discriminatory restrictions on overseas branches of Chinese enterprises,&quot; the CSIA said in a statement. &lsquo;Discriminatory measures&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;Discriminatory measures targeting specific enterprises will undermine the open, inclusive, and collaborative global semiconductor ecosystem, and we firmly oppose such measures,&quot; it added. Once part of Dutch electronics giant Philips and its semiconductor spin-off NXP, Nexperia was eventually bought by China&#39;s Wingtech Technology in 2018. It makes chips for everyday goods such as cars and refrigerators. A European Commission spokesman said Monday that the Dutch government had intervened in Nexperia to &quot;ensure security of supply in a strategically sensitive sector&quot;. &quot;The Dutch government is addressing a potential risk to both Dutch and wider European economic security,&quot; he said. &lsquo;Relevant countries&rsquo;&nbsp;When asked about the case, China&#39;s foreign ministry urged &quot;relevant countries&quot; to &quot;earnestly adhere to market principles and refrain from politicizing economic and trade issues&quot;. &quot;China consistently opposes generalizing the concept of national security and discriminatory practices against firms from specific countries,&quot; spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at a new briefing Monday. Semiconductors have become a key battleground between China and the West. Washington&#39;s &lsquo;entity lists&rsquo;The United States and the Netherlands are among the powers that have imposed restrictions on exporting advanced chip-making equipment to China, fearing Beijing could use it to make cutting-edge weapons. Wingtech was put on one of Washington&#39;s &quot;entity lists&quot; in December, meaning it had been determined by the government to be acting contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

Business

Says it supported its member Wingtech in safeguarding its rights; The Netherlands invoked the Goods Availability Act to take control of Dutch-based chip maker Nexperia in late September, citing national security concerns. 

Articles tagged with "The Netherlands"

Operation Cloudburst: Dutch train for 'water bomb' floods

China's semiconductor body slams Dutch intervention of Wingtech