Building on the second Delta Committee of 2008, the Delta Act of 2012 created a standing institution to keep the country safe from flooding and supplied with fresh water as the climate changes. It established a Delta Commissioner, a ring-fenced Delta Fund of over a billion euros a year, and a rolling Delta Programme updated annually and presented to parliament each September. Work is organised around flood safety, freshwater supply and spatial adaptation on a six-year planning cycle. The structure deliberately transcends ordinary political terms.
The Delta Programme institutionalised long-horizon, climate-adaptive water planning with secure funding, a widely studied model of anticipatory governance.
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