While the Dutch have their Delta Works, the Swedish
have their Göta Canal: a 190km long hydraulic engineering project, of which
87km are hand-made canals. During a short ‘field trip’ as part of the Sweden
STS Summer School I attended (see another blog about this soon), I visited the Göta
Canal ‘museum’ (two wooden barracks with some information about the project and
its founding fathers) near Motala, central Sweden, and it was really worth it.
Because some similarities between the Dutch
and Swedish ‘grand hydraulics’ are striking: where Johan van Veen can be said
to be the intellectual mastermind behind the Dutch Delta Plan, Baltzar von
Platen, a former navy officer and minister, has fulfilled the same role in
Sweden by developing a master plan and bringing it into reality. During a 22-year
period canal stretches and sluice gates were constructed at different project
sites and the canal itself was inaugurated in 1832. Von Platen was one of the Canal
Company Committee, which further consisted of Swedish and British hydraulic and
navy engineers. The project gave a boost to the Swedish engineer industry, for
example by Von Platen’s newly introduced forms of ‘wet excavation’ (based on
British experiences) and the establishment of the Motala Verkstad, a large
workshop where the required dredgers, excavators and other machinery equipment
was produced.
The museum’s information leaflets presents
another similarity in terms of hydraulic and nation-building discourse: the
project was considered the ‘Swedish Structure of the Century’ and a project of ‘national
importance’: arguments related to national defence and economic security were
the most important ones that were used. The Göta Canal provides an alternative
connection between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, thereby avoiding ships paying
heavy toll to the Danes at Øresund. However, by the time the canal was
completed the Danish tolls were lifted, and the developing railway
transportation system provided an economically cheaper alternative for
transporting goods and people within Sweden.
Some differences, on the other hand, are that
the Dutch Delta and Swedish mountainous and hilly landscape, dotted with
numerous large lakes, present different geographic settings. Coastal and
riverine flood protection was not in high demand. Also, where the Dutch Delta
Works were implemented following the 1953 flood, the Göta Canal was constructed
based on non-disaster situation and brought forward as an economically interesting
project.
The project now mainly
fulfils a touristic and historic purpose, providing a nice and quiet water
landscape.
