Making a fictional character come alive isn't easy. Yet it's exactly why Dutch engineers and water management experts were asked to come to New Orleans.
'We're seen here as Hansje Brinker,' says Matthijs van Ledden, projectleader at Royal Haskoning, referring to the legendary Dutch boy who supposedly put his finger in the dike to prevent a flood. But the company's work involves more than just one finger. On behalf of the US Army Corps of Engineers Royal Haskoning is helping to design and construct a 1.8-mile flood wall with two navigation gates. In the event of a hurricane, those gates can be closed to seal off New Orleans' Inner Harbor Navigation Canal from the Gulf of Mexico.
After Katrina struck in 2005, Louisiana officials and local experts called for Dutch assistance, says New Orleans architect David Waggonner, because 'we share the same problems but the Dutch understand how to co-exist with the water.' As a member of a delegation, led by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), he traveled to Holland to study how the Dutch manage to protect themselves against the sea. 'There's no country more focused on solving this water management issue. There is so much we can learn from their approach.'
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