Afraid of the water

We Dutchmen have always been very proud of the way we handled water. And with reason. Big parts of our land are built out of the water. Half our country lies beneath sea-level and we are fine with that. The way our coasts are protected against extremely high tides, our system of canals and sluices are unique in the world. And hey, didn’t we rule the oceans in the seventh century because of fine Dutchmen like De Ruyter, Hein and Tromp, who lived and breathed water?

It’s true. Or better: it was true.

Last week my town Haarlem and the nearby situated city of Haarlemmermeer (a former lake, reclaimed between 1849 and 1852!) was confronted with contaminated tap water. Nothing serious really. In one or two random checks a bacterium was found. It concerned a low concentration of the so called Escherichia coli or E. coli bacterium - as we now know caused by bird poop that got into one of the reservoirs of a water installation through a leak in the roof.
We panicked. We panicked Big Time. Because we in Holland are very used to having extreme clear and clean water coming from the tap, most people usually drink tap water instead of bottled water. And now this water wasn’t 100 percent safe!
We ran to the stores to get ourselves Spa or Evian and were willing to kill for every single bottle. With tears of despair in our eyes we cried that our country was doomed. People saw their children, pets and plants dying right in front of their own eyes. And if not, then they saw it through the eyes of others. Our leaders should be hanged or shot. No-one had warned us for this disaster in person, by telephone or maybe a courier. It was obvious: we had reached the edge of the cliff. This was: The End.

The fact that E coli is not a very dangerous bacterium and almost completely harmless in a low concentration, the fact that a little bit of E coli in your water is not very likely to cause any serious health problems, the fact that indeed no one got ill and the fact that if you wanted to be completely sure about the safety of the water boiling it for just two minutes would be sufficient – it didn’t matter. The proud Dutchmen of Haarlem and Haarlemmermeer had become afraid. Afraid of their water.