Why 17 Million People Live Below the Sea | The Netherlands

Along the western edge of Europe, the North Sea sits higher than the land behind it — on an ordinary afternoon, under a flat grey sky, the water stands above the rooftops it looms over. Nearly a third of the Netherlands lies below the level of that sea, and its lowest ground rests almost seven metres beneath the waterline, sinking a little deeper every year. The land stays dry only because the water that wants to be there is lifted out and pushed back to the sea, hour after hour, without a single pause. This is the story of the ground itself — a delta the rivers built too low, on peat that sinks the moment you drain it, along a coast the sea has been trying to reclaim for three thousand years.

In this documentary, discover how the Netherlands raised itself out of the water, why seventeen million people built their capital and their cities on ground the sea should own, and what it costs to hold that line every single day.

Take a breath, and stay a while on the low ground.

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