‘The danger and value of water are in my blood’: how rain fences are making Dutch homes more climate resilient

Housing corporations are adopting rainwater storage in garden fences, reducing pressure during downpours and preserving water for times of drought

Good fences make good neighbours – but rain fences could make even better ones.

That is the hope of housing corporations in the Netherlands, which are adopting rainwater storage in their garden fences.

In a tidy neighbourhood in Veldhoven, where the social housing provider, Woonstichting ’thuis, is installing its first such rain fence, one couple, Theo and Willy Bolder, are already seeing an increase in their popularity. “People are all coming round to ask what it costs,” said Willy Bolder.

Outside, between rattan fence panels, a series of plastic blocks have been linked to the drainage from their roof. Together, they will store up to 2,160 litres of water – reducing pressure on the drains during downpours and preserving rainwater for the garden in times of drought.

“The rain is getting heavier and heavier nowadays, and if you have a cloudburst the drainage isn’t good and it comes up through the toilet,” she said. “There’s a lot of paving, so the water can’t escape.”

Theo added that the hotter summers were threatening the trees and their quality of life. “I always go fishing in a lake, it’s always full of water but last summer it was completely dry,” he said. “There is often a hosepipe ban now and we have a lot of plants.”

The couple are not the only ones to feel the effects of the climate crisis in this low-lying country where, according to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute KNMI, average temperatures have increased by 1C since 2000, and cities are typically 5C warmer than rural areas.

Weather extremes are now more likely. The Netherlands was shocked by floods in Limburg in 2021, when more than 15cm of rain fell in 48 hours and the River Geul burst its banks.

Rik Thijs, deputy mayor for public space, greenery and water in nearby Eindhoven, said private and public initiatives were needed to adapt to the changing weather. “Our sewage system cannot cope with the rainfall that is coming, and we cannot increase its capacity, so we need to do things differently,” he said. “This means that you need to capture as much as possible on the surface.”

This might mean plans to bring an old river, the Gender, back to the surface, “wadi” pools that can hold water during heavy rain, and incorporating green roofs and rainwater storage into housing developments. “The Netherlands is very vulnerable because we are, of course, one large delta,” he said.

The country’s vulnerability to water was graphically illustrated by the North Sea flood of 1953, when at least 1,800 people died, tens of thousands of animals drowned and there was huge damage to property and farmland. While the disaster, in the province of Zeeland, inspired the Delta Works sea defences, it also left its mark on the Dutch entrepreneur Harry den Hartigh, whose company, SunnyRain Solutions, installed the storage system in the Bolders’ garden.

“I was born in Zeeland and my parents experienced the flood disaster,” said den Hartigh. “My father volunteered to help, to rescue people, and it was an intense experience. The danger and the value of water are in my blood.”

In his youth, he also saw how Zeeland struggled to source enough fresh water for agriculture owing to brackish water from the sea, and this inspired his rainwater storage system. “I started thinking about how, in an urban area with not much space, you can collect rainwater in a way that is also attractive: a fence that also serves as a rainwater store.”

Despite the Netherlands’ reputation for rain, it has increasing concerns about water shortages in the summer, and overheating cities. Jannes Willems, assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Amsterdam, said simple solutions at scale could make a difference. “Rainwater harvesting is a very easy fix,” he said. “We have a water system that was built to discharge water as quickly as possible.”

But with flood events and rain bursts, the sewers simply cannot cope. “You can better let it infiltrate the soil through green measures, bringing back natural elements in cities. And then, in times of heatwaves, that can lower temperatures,” he said.

For property managers at Woonstichting ’thuis, rain fences are not only about doing the right thing for the environment. Matthijs Hulsbosch, a property and sustainability manager, said the fences could also make the complex’s 11,000 homes more resilient. “Of course, for the future, it is also part of protecting your own property,” he said. “Because if water cannot drain away and it gets into the building, then we have a problem.

“We can fix leaks, but it might be better to prevent them through these kinds of ideas – and save a great deal of money and inconvenience.”

Willems said it also represented a change to the idea that a country that reclaimed a fifth of its land from the sea could always bend nature to its will. “Fifty years ago, the Dutch water system was a good example of modernist thinking: being able to master nature,” he said. “With green infrastructure, the Dutch are trying to rebrand that narrative and bring back a natural state – if we want to.”

Others wonder whether a jazzy rain fence could improve not only wilting hedges but also wilting local relations. David Hearn, neighbourhood manager for Woonstichting ’thuis, was delighted that the Bolder family had agreed to take part in the pilot rain fence scheme. “Although,” he added, “I have had tenants who hated each other so much, they weren’t even prepared to accept a free fence.”