Water scarcity in the Netherlands

The Dutch government declared a “de facto water shortage (level 2)” on August 3rd 2022, scaling up from a “threat of water shortage (level 1)”. With this declaration, the management of the water distribution is delegated to a national commission (Management Team Water Scarcity) with the aim of following the development of the water scarcity more closely and being able to react faster if the need for more measures arises. Currently, mostly preventive measures are taken. Europe has been experiencing a severe-to-extreme drought since the beginning of 2022 with forecast for the coming months still pointing to drier-than-normal conditions. The main impacts on the Netherlands are related to the severely low flow in the Rhine River, affecting commercial navigation, dike stability in the peatland areas in the western part of the country, and causing related - still manageable - problems such as water distribution difficulties and sea water intrusion throughout the strongly interconnected water system.