- Stand by for the newest solution to the flooding brought
by global warming - going back to the Ark. The world's first amphibious
housing estate - with homes that will leave the ground to bob up and down
on floodwater - is nearing completion in the Netherlands.
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- France and Germany are already showing interest in the
latter-day Noah's Arks, but not the British Government - even though it
warned only 10 days ago that millions of Britons are going to be at risk
of inundation as climate change takes hold.
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- The estate of 36 luxury houses is being built at Maasbommel,
south of Arnhem, on a beautiful bend of the river Maas - which periodically
bursts its banks. It is on the "wrong" side of the dyke, which
protects the hinterland from the rising waters, and is thus particularly
prone to inundation.
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- But the houses are designed to be immune to catastrophe,
and their new owners are even looking forward to the thrill of their first
flood. Anna and Karel van der Molen, both in their mid-40s, are due to
move into their Ä350,000 (£232,000) split-level, amphibian home
in two weeks.
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- Busily painting the large living room, with stunning
views over the watery landscape, full of nesting birds, they recalled yesterday
how they had had to flee their old home nine years ago when it looked as
if the dykes would collapse. "It's part and parcel of life here,"
said Anna: "You take what you can to the attic, lock the front door
and hold your breath."
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- Karel, a product manager at a nearby factory, adds: "It
is a dream come true finally to have a home that will remain dry no matter
what. We are now even looking forward to the floods and the thrill of having
the house rise up. Our families and friends want to come and share this
unique experience with us."
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- The houses, designed by Dutch architect Grer Krengen,
are made of lightweight wood and constructed on hollow concrete bases,
which give them the same buoyancy as ships' hulls. They sit on concrete
pillars and are anchored to steel mooring posts with sliding rings.
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- When the floods come they will rise up the posts with
the waters, and then settle back on the pillars again when they subside.
All the electric cables, household water and sewage flow through flexible
pipes inside the posts.
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- Each family will need a boat to get to their houses during
floods, after parking their cars on the nearby dyke.
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- "They are pretty much just regular houses,"
says builder Hans van de Beek. "The only difference is that when the
water rises, they rise."
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- And Andri van Ooijen, a local campsite and marina owner
who came up with the idea of the estate, says: "It is a good opportunity
to show that living with water, instead of fighting against it, works."
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- The Ark offers to help the Dutch fight two crises. The
first is the growing menace of global warming and sea-level rise to the
country, half of which is below sea level.
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- Already the country is having to modify its 1,000-year
battle against the tides, popularised by the legend of Hans Brinker, the
boy who saved his community by sticking his finger in a leaking dyke. Some
years ago the Dutch government concluded that it could not forever go on
strengthening and raising its dykes - and the Dutch water authority is
warning that the sea level could rise by three-and-a-half feet this century.
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- It also offers a way of combating the growing Dutch housing
crisis, by opening up land previously too dangerous to consider for homes.
Dura Vermeer, the property development company behind the Maasbommel estate,
is now looking for a site for an entire floating town. The company has
received approaches from France and Germany and is considering "packaging
up the houses" and exporting them.
But the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister refuses to comment on the idea,
even though it is promoting the building of 90,000 new homes in the Thames
Gateway which is so prone to flooding that the Association of British Insurers
has warned that it may not cover the development.
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- Ten days ago, an inquiry led by Professor Sir David King,
the Government's chief scientist, warned that 3.6 million Britons will
be at risk of flooding as global warming increases over the next decades.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=519414
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