Gov. Edwards Welcomed by Dutch Water Envoy on First Day of Economic and Resiliency Mission to Netherlands

AMSTERDAM – At present’s agenda for Gov. John Bel Edwards and a gaggle of Louisiana enterprise and authorities leaders features a assembly with Particular Envoy for Worldwide Water Affairs for the Kingdom of the Netherlands Henk Ovink, in addition to a tour of main water infrastructure websites and analysis services across the nation in an effort to forge financial and resiliency partnerships with their Dutch counterparts. The go to contains: 

• The Noorwaard Polder, among the many key websites of the nation’s large-scale flood management venture, “Room for the River.”
• Kinderdijk, a UNESCO world heritage website whose 19 windmills have historic significance within the growth of water administration and pumping stations.
• Delft, house of the Deltares water analysis institute that includes the most important wave-testing facility on the planet.

“The Netherlands has been a useful companion to Louisiana in our quest to develop cutting-edge options to the state’s advanced flood management challenges,” Gov. Edwards mentioned. “Our ongoing change of water administration greatest practices is a mannequin for the form of worldwide collaboration that’s required to confront an environmental disaster of this magnitude. On behalf of your entire state, I thank Particular Water Envoy Ovink for the invitation to proceed the change of concepts and experiences to the historic water challenges we each face.”

Ambassador Henk Ovink was appointed by the Cupboard of the Netherlands because the world’s first nationwide cabinet-level water administration chief in 2015. Because the Ambassador for Water, he’s chargeable for advocating water consciousness all over the world and constructing coalitions amongst governments, companies and nonprofits to develop artistic options to the world’s urgent water wants. He visited Louisiana in 2019 to workshop greatest practices with resilience leaders and buyers within the state’s burgeoning water business sector. 

“This essential and provoking go to with Governor John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana delegation comes at a vital time,” Ovink mentioned. “Working collectively on water begins with understanding and valuing water higher. Louisiana and the Netherlands share the identical challenges and alternatives, and importantly have a shared ambition to step as much as the water, local weather and sustainability wants. Forging coalitions like ours can encourage the world to scale up and replicate the wanted actions. I applaud the governor and his group for his or her management and stay up for scaling our collaboration internationally.”

Monday’s fact-finding mission follows conferences on Sunday with U.S. Consul Basic Kate Nanavatty; Dr. Bregje Van Wesenbeeck, scientific director of Deltares and a world professional in nature-based options to flood threat discount; and Dr. Lauren Alexander Augustine, govt director of the Nationwide Academies of Science Gulf Analysis Program, the place she oversees administration of $500 million in settlement funds from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

Wesenbeeck and Augustine briefed the governor on a proposed collaboration amongst state, federal and native companions to develop a nationwide Heart for Equitable Local weather Resilience in Louisiana. Additionally they mentioned the potential growth of a “Blue Carbon” or “Coastal Carbon” market, which might leverage the power of aquatic and wetland crops to seize and retailer carbon to generate greenhouse gasoline credit and incentivize funding in Louisiana wetlands restoration.

The engagement of leaders from two international locations on the entrance strains of local weather change comes because the Netherlands prepares to co-host the UN 2023 Water Convention. That March 23-24 occasion will carry world leaders collectively on the United Nations in New York Metropolis to develop a unified motion plan for what organizers name “a water safe world for all. 

“From a water sources, flood, and local weather perspective, this sort of engagement gives thrilling alternatives to strengthen our long-standing collaboration with companions within the Netherlands over the challenges that each Louisiana residents and the Dutch face,” mentioned The Water Institute of the Gulf President and CEO Justin Ehrenwerth, who hosted Sunday’s assembly with Van Wesenbeeck. “The partnerships that develop from these sorts of face-to-face conferences are invaluable as we proceed to develop progressive options to our most urgent water challenges.” 

As a part of their greatest practices change, Gov. Edwards and members of the delegation up to date their Dutch hosts on a lot of groundbreaking tasks underway in Louisiana. 

Louisiana Coastal Safety and Restoration Authority Chairman Chip Kline relayed the progress being made in restoring and defending coastal Louisiana with the completion of a number of restoration tasks, sediment diversions and flood safety investments. Ehrenwerth and Baton Rouge Space Basis CEO Chris Meyer mentioned the Louisiana Watershed Initiative and continued success of the Baton Rouge Water Campus, the nation’s first main middle devoted to the examine of coastal restoration and sustainability. And Louisiana Financial Growth Secretary Don Pierson described how increased training partnerships are constructing a strong water administration workforce by way of initiatives just like the Coastal Technical Help Heart (CTAC) on the campus of Nicholls State College, which connects Louisiana firms to coastal restoration venture contracts.