India and the Netherlands have stepped up cooperation on water management, signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in September 2026, with particular focus on advancing technical cooperation for the Kalpasar Project in Gujarat. The project envisages creation of a freshwater reservoir using runoff from the Sabarmati, Mahi and Dhadhar rivers, supplemented by water conveyed from the Narmada river.
Ministers from both countries chaired bilateral meetings in New Delhi on the sidelines of the 9th India International Water Week 2026. Down To Earth Principal Correspondent Shagun spoke to Jaap Slootmaker, Vice Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands, on what Dutch water-management experience can offer India, how the Netherlands is adapting to increasingly frequent droughts, and where the two countries can learn from each other.
Edited excerpts:
Shagun: India and the Netherlands have very different water realities. India has monsoon dependence, enormous agricultural demand and heavy groundwater dependence, while the Netherlands has a highly engineered delta system. As the two countries strengthen strategic partnership in the water sector, which Dutch lessons genuinely translate to India?
Jaap Slootmaker (JS): We are much smaller than India. But we are also a low-lying delta country that would be prone to flooding without water management. Around 25 per cent of the Netherlands is below sea level and another 16 to 17 per cent is reclaimed land. So we are, in a sense, a human-made country that requires constant water management.
Traditionally, the basis of our water management has been keeping the water out — making sure we keep dry feet and prevent flooding by both the sea and the rivers that run through the country. The big floodings in 1916 and 1953 prompted measures like the Delta Works or like the Afsluitdijk, the 32-kilometre-long dyke that we are now also discussing with India.
India has a very different water system. But that does not mean we cannot learn from each other. Under the strategic water partnership, we are trying to exchange knowledge and experience. The Netherlands has around 800 years of experience in water management and flood protection, but India also has considerable experience that is increasingly relevant to us.
Because of climate change, we are now confronted with dry summers, sea level rise, other challenges, some of which India has been dealing with for much longer. So, the partnership is really about bringing together the experience and knowledge of both countries.
We have some renowned technical universities or knowledge institutes, including Deltares and TU Delft, which are working with Indian counterparts. The MoUs provide a common basis for specialists from both countries to work together and learn from each other.
Shagun: What are some of the top priorities under this partnership? India and Netherlands just signed an MoU related to the Kalpasar freshwater reservoir project. Given the scale of creating a freshwater reservoir in a tidal bay, what technical, ecological and social issues need to be considered?
JS: What we call the Afsluitdijk is, in some respects comparable to the Kalpasar project, although it has a different history. We built the Afsluitdijk almost 100 years ago following the major flooding of 1916. The idea was to shorten the coastline and protect a large part of the country from flooding by closing off part of the sea. As a result, a freshwater lake developed behind the dyke.
So it began primarily as a flood-defence measure, and that remains one of its functions. But today, the lake is also an important freshwater reservoir. One of the ideas being considered for Kalpasar is similarly to construct a barrier and create a freshwater lake. What we are doing under the MoU is sharing the experience we have accumulated over almost a century of building, operating and maintaining the Afsluitdijk.
We know much more today than we did when it opened in 1932. We have learned lessons about the effects on water quality behind the dyke, sedimentation, fish migration and social impacts. Those experiences can now be taken into account in the decision-making around Kalpasar, which is a very ambitious project to create a freshwater lake.
Shagun: You mentioned how the Netherlands has historically focussed on keeping the water out and managing too much water. We are in a strengthening El Niño, and drought and water scarcity are becoming a much bigger concern. For example, very low Rhine levels have affected navigation this summer. How is Dutch water policy changing as drought becomes a bigger concern?
JS: We are working towards a new balance. The old system was largely designed around getting rid of water as quickly as possible. Now, at the same time, we are trying to retain water and prevent it from simply flowing out to sea.
The summer of 2026 was record-breaking in terms of dryness, but it was not the first dry summer. We had a very dry summer in 2018, and after that we began a programme specifically aimed at dealing with drought.
One of the measures is to store more water in the soil and improve groundwater recharge. In the past, for instance, small rivers and streams were often straightened because that was the most efficient way of moving water away quickly. Now, in some places, we are restoring their natural meanders. By allowing rivers to wind rather than flow through straightened channels, the water moves more slowly and has more time to infiltrate into the soil.
We have also raised the water level of the IJsselmeer (the largest lake in the Netherlands) so that a larger volume can be retained and used as freshwater storage.
Another measure involves working with local and regional water boards to restrict groundwater abstraction. During dry periods, limits are imposed so that too much groundwater is not withdrawn.
For navigation, we also manage sluices more carefully. Every time a sluice is opened and closed, freshwater is lost. By managing those operations more precisely, we can conserve water while keeping waterways available for shipping.
So there is no single solution. It is a combination of measures, and every dry summer gives us new experience and new lessons about how to deal with drought.
Shagun: Is drought still a relatively new reality for the Netherlands and other European countries? How is Europe preparing for drought as a longer-term climate risk, particularly given the cross-border nature of rivers such as the Rhine?
JS: The projections indicate that this is a new reality. Summers like the one we have just experienced could become normal summers in some years or decades from now. And countries across Europe are confronting the effects of climate change. It is not only about water shortages. We are also seeing wildfires across Europe and increasing heat stress for people in their homes.
And we are working together in the European Union. For the Netherlands in particular, what happens in upstream countries is extremely important. We cannot look only at our own part of the delta; we have to work closely with the countries upstream.
In the end, water is a cross-border issue, and that is particularly important for the Netherlands because we are located at the downstream end of major European rivers.
For drought specifically, European countries share data and exchange early warnings signals on drought and river levels. They coordinate water management measures across river basins, and are developing common approaches for managing low flows, water allocation and competing demands from drinking water, agriculture, industry and ecosystems. For the Rhine river, which spans many EU member states, countries work through the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine to monitor low water conditions, assess future water availability, develop joint solutions and coordinate measures across the river basin.
Shagun: India has also experimented at scale with watershed management, rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, and community based approaches to drought. As the Netherlands develops its own response to more frequent drought, are there areas where it could learn from India or work more closely with India?
JS: With all the expertise and experience that India has, we can hopefully learn from it. This could become a topic under the renewed Strategic Water Partnership, which is expected to be finalised in March next year. Both prime ministers have agreed that the partnership will be renewed. Issues such as managing water during drought may now be much more relevant to the partnership than they were five years ago.
There are also other areas where we are already working together. This morning (September 25), we visited the Okhla wastewater treatment plant in Delhi, and the scale was impressive. The plant is around twice the size of the largest wastewater treatment facility we have in the Netherlands. We discussed the way wastewater is being treated there, but what was particularly interesting was a demonstration project using hollow-fibre nanofiltration technology that had just been launched at the site. The system takes water directly from a wastewater drain and treats it in just two stages, producing water of very high quality at the other end. The demonstration will run for six months and then has to be validated. That work is being undertaken under the India-Netherlands Centre of Excellence on Water to assess whether the technology can be scaled up.