Dutch Answer to Flooding: Build Houses that Swim

Dutch Answer to Flooding Build Houses that Swim
There are 37 houses strung along this branch of the Maas like a row of beads.

At first glance, they seem quite unremarkable.

Two storeys high, semicircular metal roofs and yellow, green or blue facades - hardly any clues let on that these are The Netherlands' first amphibious houses.

The cellar, in this case, is not built into the earth.

Instead, it is on a platform - and is much more than a mere storage room.

The hollow foundation of each house works in the same way as the hull of a ship, buoying the structure up above water.

To prevent the swimming houses from floating away, they slide up two broad steel posts - and as the water level sinks, so they sink back down again.

"The columns have been driven deep into solid ground," explains Dick van Gooswilligen from the Dura Vermeer construction company.

"They are even strong enough to withstand currents you would find on the open seas."

Gooswilligen is currently busy guiding dozens of journalists from the United States through the watertight settlement in the Maasbommel district, close to Nijmegen.

"As global warming causes the sea level to rise, this is the solution," he explains into a microphone.

"Housing of this type is the future for the delta regions of the world, the ones which face the greatest danger."

Soundbites like these are just