Management of Dutch Estuaries the Ems-Dollard and the Western Scheldt Available to Purchase

In this paper the ecological situation of two Dutch estuaries will be described in relation to efforts of the Government to maintain or restore their environmental quality. The two estuaries are the Ems-Dollard estuary and the Western Scheldt. Both form the border with Germany and Belgium respectively and therefore are a potential management problem with respect to pollution crossing the borders between the countries involved. Therefore international consultation is needed to tackle environmental problems. Both estuaries are the remaining real estuaries of the Netherlands which can be conceived as one large Delta region of the rivers Rhine, Meuse, Scheldt and Ems. Plans for the sanitation of all rivers have been proposed and are in development as e.g. the Rhine Action Plan. For the smaller rivers like the Ems and Scheldt agreements about the reduction of pollutants have been made within the framework of the North Sea ministerial conferences. The ecological values of these estuaries are diminished through pollution, resulting in a reduced biological diversity, or reduced numbers of species. At present measures are taken to improve the ecological value which is based on the former ecological situation (ten Brink et al., 1991). Besides pollution also dredging and dumping of dredged material has levelled down the biological diversity and numbers of plants and animals.