Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?
The Netherlands dredges 30-35 million cubic meters of mud annually to keep its waterways navigable, a task now performed by oil-powered ships consuming up to 3,000 liters per hour. But before fossil fuels, the Dutch relied on manual labor, animal power, wind, and tides, using ingenious tools like dredge bags, dredge mills, and wind-powered scratchers. This article explores these pre-industrial techniques and asks whether a fossil-free future for dredging is possible, even estimating how many people would be needed to do it by hand again.
At low tide, the sluice gates of the basin were opened and the scratcher was pushed through the harbour with great force as the iron teeth scraped across the bottom.