Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan kick-started his two-week tour to Europe on Wednesday, with his first stop being the Netherlands. A statement put out by the Embassy of India in The Hague, on Tuesday, stated that the Dutch Government had invited the Kerala CM to explore possibilities of cooperation in water management, flood prevention and agriculture.
The Netherlands, which is 26 per cent below sea level, is known to be the world leader in the field of water management and flood control. In August last year, Kerala had witnessed the biggest floods in a century, causing huge damage to human lives and property.
Following the floods, the Dutch Government, in March, had sent a four-member team as part of the “Risk Reduction Mission”. The team submitted a report to the Kerala government on Kuttanad, a region in Alappuzha district, which lies below sea level and was badly affected during the floods.
Pinarayi Vijayan, during his visit to the Netherlands, will be meeting Cora Van Nieuwenhuizen, Dutch Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management and Jan Kees Goet, Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture. He will also be interacting with the representatives of the business community in a meeting organised by Hans De Boer, the president of VNO-NCW, a Dutch employers' federation.
According to the Indian Embassy, the Chief Minister will also visit the Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, situated in the Netherlands, to discuss inland water management and also see first hand the measures taken for flood control and water management by the Dutch Government.
“He will meet agricultural experts of the University of Wageningen to understand the latest agricultural techniques in horticulture and floriculture,” said the Indian Embassy in The Hague in a statement.
Other items on the Chief Minister’s programme include paying a visit to the National Archives of the Netherlands to view items in their collection pertaining to the Dutch presence in Kerala in the 17th century, as well as holding discussions on digitising Dutch records in the possession of Kerala State Archives.