Join The Pipe?

 

One of the things that shocked me the most about coming to Europe was the lack of free water. At a restaurant, a small bottle, less volume than a free glass at any American restaurant, will cost upwards of three or four euro. But upon further examination, there are ways to access clean, safe, and free drinking water. 

In some larger cities, like Rotterdam for example, there are free drinking taps around. It is just a matter of spotting them, a silver box that can blend in with city-wide utility system boxes. Labeled 'drinkwater', these free taps supply chilled and clean water right on the sidewalk. 

me with the tap on a Rotterdam street

Additionally, there are other water taps around that are part of an organization called Join The Pipe. By using the sales of water bottle distribution, they install tap water fountains around urban and rural areas. Their goal is to create a fair water distribution system because they believe that everyone has a right to drink water. I first learned about this while volunteering at the rooftop art installation, as these were the water bottles provided for us as well as a tap station on sight. Our hostel in Amsterdam also has a tap inside which is very convenient. Join The Pipe is the first tap water company to be distributed globally around all major cities. 

While I've seen more Join The Pipe taps around and more advertising for them, tap water from various distribution systems can be found for free around the Netherlands. This is something I have definitely taken advantage of once discovered them instead of having to pay for water in a glass bottle from a restaurant. 

Join The Pipe tap in the lobby of our hostel in Amsterdam

Up close picture of the signage associated with the tap in Amsterdam

GreenTech: Floating Solar Panels

While the GreenTech conference wasn't what I was expecting and many of the innovations let me down, there were a couple innovations specific to water that I did find quite interesting. Floating Solar is one of them.   

One company called Floating Solar got my attention because of the huge solar panels they had inside the exhibition hall. These solar parks, as they call them, use water as a resource by not taking up any space on land. They have tracking technology installed so the panels rotate throughout the day in line with the most direct sun exposure, allowing them to produce higher yields of energy. The materials used in the construction are 100% reusable and made from high-grade items to ensure they don't release any unwanted substances into the water. They are also angled steeper than most solar panels on today's market which prevents birds from sitting on top of them and instead provides them a shady potential habitat underneath the panels and on the floating structure itself. 

Floating Solar's solar panels on display at GreenTech

My Time at an Urban Garden

 

While in Rotterdam, I volunteered at Vredestiun Noord, an urban garden located in a residential area. This garden is run by one man, but also by neighborhood volunteers who come in the morning and lend some helping hands. The produce grown in this garden is split between people that help out in the garden. After they take what they want, the rest of the harvest is donated to food banks or brought closer to the city center to hand out to people in need. None of their food is sold. 

When I arrived there with my group, they explained that to us and then explained what work was going to be done that day. Some people weeded beds that weren't planted in yet, others covered beds with compost, and I was placed on water duty. Being located so close to a canal, they had an irrigation system in place to bring the water up from the ground for the plants. However, that day, the system was not working. It was my job over the next couple of hours was to fill up watering cans from the canal and wheelbarrow them over to the garden where I was then instructed on what plants to water. On a hot day, this was a very laborious task. However, this was nothing but rewarding to know that I was helping the crops grow when they weren't getting water in any other capacity. This was of utmost importance due to the heatwave and the fact that it has not rained in several weeks. At the end of my time there, I was given the task of planting pumpkin and corn plants which was a fun way to tie the whole process together. 

This experience was very eye-opening for me. While I consider myself a city person and not too fond of the 'rural' life, I was still only a couple miles from the center of town where I was staying. When I looked through a clearance in the tree canopy, I could see skyscrapers. Bringing the rural into the urban sphere through small gardens like the one I visited is one of many ways the urban-rural divide is being bridged. 

The spot of the canal where I filled up the watering cans to bring back into the garden. 

The bed of pumpkin and corn I planted!

 

De Steur

The sturgeon is the largest fish you could find in the Netherlands and also one of the largest in the world. Once plentiful, this fish faced overfishing in the middle ages and by the 1930s no longer swam in the Dutch or German waters. It is currently categorized as a critically endangered animal. So what are the Dutch doing to help them before it's too late? 

In 1971, the Haringvlietdam was installed at the mouth of the Haringvliet, the mouth of major rivers like the Rhine and Maas. This installation became a significant problem for the remaining wild sturgeon around. These fish spend most of their time in the saltwater but come back into the freshwater rivers to reproduce due to the unique conditions like clear and deep channels with gravel beds that are favorable. The closing of the Haringvliet prevented them from being able to enter the Netherlands waterways in this area. 

Recognizing that this fish is important to the history of this country, organizations have started to come together and aid in their restoration. One major aspect of this was slightly opening the dam in 2018, allowing fish to freely swim between the sea and the rivers again. 

Reintroducing the sturgeon to the Rhine again is no easy feat. Sturgeons take a long time to reach maturity, with males being able to spawn after about 10 years and females reaching maturity between 15 and 22 years. This slow process is further lengthened by the females only being able to reproduce every 3-5 years. 

Saving this species will take a long time and is something that would benefit from human intervention. Tagging and tracking adults and babies will be necessary to measure the population and ensure that it is growing. Additionally, strict fines should be placed on people who illegally fish these animals, as there are other methods like buying from a sustainable sturgeon fishery. I think the Dutch are off to a good start righting their wrongs but it will be a joint effort between the fish, people, and international governments to make sure that these efforts continue. 

Sign about the sturgeon and Haringvliet in the Rotterdam Zoo inspired me to look into this conservation further. 

Urban Reef

Is there a way we can coerce nature to grow again in urban areas? When walking through the Rotterdam Zoo, I learned of a type of project they are experimenting with to do just this. Printed from 3D materials, their so-called urban reef is porous allowing water to be absorbed into the structure while also having a rough texture designed for plants to be able to attach themselves. They say that this innovation is not meant to fix environmental conditions that starve nature from urban settings, but as a way to bring a little bit of diversity into them. Urban Reefs are ways we as humans can integrate nature back into our everyday world. 

Urban Reef Prototype in the Amazon section of the zoo

Sign at the base of the reef explaining what it is

Tensions Between Myself, Cities, and their Futures

 

           As a social science student, it is often that I get stuck in a negative headspace. Whether that be from learning more about climate change, colonialism, capitalism, or something entirely different, it's hard to not let these negative topics affect me. The world's gonna burn and people treat each other horribly in the hopes of profit -- a good mindset to finish college and go off to the real world with, right? While being abroad, I've had the opportunity to change this mindset by meeting people working towards good within my field of study. 

        One of these instances was meeting with The Resilient Cities Network at their headquarters in Rotterdam. This is an NGO that is focused on creating more sustainable cities and infrastructure networks that protect and serve the community in our new complex world. Starting with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and 100 focus cities, this team has grown to have over 4,000 projects in their portfolio spanning cities across 6 continents. Meeting with this team, I realized that there is a more positive outlook in my sights. Instead of focusing on all the negative aspects, they utilize this as data to try and innovate out of issues humans have created by connecting cities to information, investments, and on-site plans. They faciliate conversations on coming together to learn from each other's struggles and inspirations in order to adapt and grow after chronic stresses (like poverty or aging infrastructure) and acute shocks (like Covid-19 and natural diasters). They inspired me by showing that nothing's all bad and that there are people and organizations working to undo our corrupt world, one small project at a time. 

Group photo of the meeting's participants. 

 

Space as a Resource: De Groen Kaap

    In a small and forward-thinking country like the Netherlands, space as a resource is already being explored in the mainstream and is something that the United States should consider, especially in urban areas as they try to bring green space back into it.  De Groen Kaap is another example of viewing space as a resource. Located in Katendracht, De Groen Kaap is a recent housing development with plans to transform the neighborhood. Once home to the high class and summer houses for the Rotterdam elite, the residents of this neighborhood were displaced during the beginning of the 20th century as the city planned to expand the Port of Rotterdam, also located in Katendracht. They built new housing developments suitable for sailors and the working class which led to an increase in crime, gambling, and prostitution in the neighborhood. After operating under these conditions for most of the century, Katendracht was not a highly sought-after neighborhood and began to experience disinvestment.

    Beginning in 2010, with the Port of Rotterdam no longer there, the city began to invest in this neighborhood once again in hopes of bringing it back to its former glory. De Groen Kaap features 5 blocks of new buildings, made to capture the attention of people with various lifestyles. It consists of apartments, penthouses, and townhouses, as well as a couple commercial spaces and parking garages. This area was rebuilt with their environment in mind and features walking paths through communal courtyards that connected this whole area. They also designed 7,600 square meters of rooftop gardens with a water buffering system to allow the various species of plants and trees to continue their growth.

Bird's eye view of communal courtyards and rooftop gardens.