The Dutch government is considering a radical plan to build a £7 billion island in the shape of a tulip in the North Sea to relieve pressure on its overcrowded cities and protect the coastline from rising sea levels.

Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister, has asked a government advisory body, the Innovation Platform, to study the feasibility of reclaiming land about twice the size of the Isle of Wight. The findings will be presented to MPs and engineers on January 17.

Tulip Island is the brainchild of Joop Atsma, a member of Balkenende’s centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal party, who points out that about half the country’s 16m people live below sea level. He is proposing to build an island of between 120,000 and 250,000 acres off the coast of the Randstad, the country’s most densely inhabited region around Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht.

“All over the world people associate tulips with the Netherlands,” Atsma said.

While the Dutch have honed their expertise in battling the seas over centuries, contractors have until now had to go abroad in search of grandiose projects befitting their talents. Several Dutch engineering firms have been involved in land reclamation projects in Hong Kong and in building the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai.

Balkenende now wants these national skills to be put to use at home. “We are good at hydraulic engineering and we should hold on to this leadership position,” he said.

Reclaimed land funded through a public-private partnership would be used for agriculture, recreation and for both low-cost and luxury housing. The island could also protect the vulnerable coastline from flooding, Atsma said.

With studies showing flood defences on eight stretches of the coast too weak to cope with sea level rises, the Dutch are looking for long-term solutions.

But coastline communities and environmentalists are in uproar over Tulip Island. “It’s a crazy idea,” said Lisa van der Veen from the North Sea Foundation. “It would be too expensive and the consequences for the ecosystem would be very dramatic.”

Webpage of the governmental advisory body researching the feasibility of the proposal (in Dutch)

Read more about the Prime minister of the Netherlands

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