Didge, I don't think it would be the first or the only place to face such a fate. Holland may trail New Orleans, LA in the race to the bottom. N'orlins (as the locals say) averages 2-7 feet below sea level and is built in a delta region that is sliding south geologically into the Gulf of Mexico. It has already been underwater once this century.
You used to be able to stand outside the main entrance to Schiphol (Amsterdam) airport to see a sign which told you that you were 9 metres below mean sea level.
When one considers the maze of waterways in that part of the Netherlands the tendency is to believe "It's only a matter of time."
But the sea walls are stout, well monitored, maintained and managed, I think that Holland has a few years left yet.
Holland's greatest problem these days is population overload. They have far too many people for such a small habitable area. It gives them the worst traffic jams in Europe. Their once much-admired free health service is now expensive, and not particularly noteworthy. They have a lot of unemployment. The social support networks are proving almost impossible to maintain, and as a consequence taxes are punishingly high on those in work.
All this because they were unable to manage their population.
It's still a nice place (and I love Amsterdam and Utrecht), but it's a different Holland from 20 years ago.
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