Torrential rain - will Holland disappear?

Nevermind the sea level problem, it's torrential rain and rising rivers that will sink the Netherlands. The pumps that pump the Rhine and other rivers into the sea simply can't work fast enough. And the drainage systems haven't been built for sudden storms.

Scientists at the European Environmental Agency have just issued a report warning that the climate is changing faster in Europe than elsewhere. Global warming is taking effect. This year, our summer has been condensed into one blistering month where the temperature was above 35 and it was too hot to sleep at night without a fan. The heat has now subsided and is being wiped out completely by one flash flood after another.

Yesterday, in just five minutes, the road beside our offices turned into a river and the deep pit of the building site next to it turned into a mud bath - water cutting through the sand (this is Holland; all the ground here is sand) and gushing down into the foundations. Later, when I left to go home, I saw bank workers in their grey suits pulling blue plastic bin liners over their shoes before they ventured into the lake that had formed inside the metro station. The water wasn't even ankle-deep by then - Yours Truly ventured in without the plastic bags, happily remembering that time in New Zealand when she crossed a raging river arm-in-arm with six other hikers on an adventure tour. I emerged dry-footed on the other side, having a private chuckle at the suits that didn't want to get their feet wet...

And then, at home, you find that the water is pouring off the flat roofs - why on earth do they build houses with flat roofs in Amsterdam - pouring straight down past three storeys onto the roof of the sports school below, missing the broken drainpipe that's hanging lamely, its supporting bracket broken. On the ground below, the water has already turned the paved area in front of our storage spaces into a temporary canal. Thank goodness we live on the fourth floor!