'In a hot summer, in homes located twenty meters from the water, the paint falls off the window frames. This is not a lie, but that is the practice.' This is how Groningen CPN politician Fré Meis described the situation in his hometown of Oude Pekela in the 1970s. Polluting factories had poisoned the air and the foam was so thick on the canals that ships could no longer sail there. The pollution put pressure on the livability of the village, but at the same time the inhabitants were highly dependent on the factories for work and income. This situation in Oude Pekela showed the difficult relationship between environment and employment, between economy and ecology.
Green Chemistry in the Northern Netherlands.
The factories in Oude Pekela focused on strawboard production, but the balancing exercise described applies equally to the chemical industry. To create jobs, governments encouraged the arrival of chemical plants in the northern Netherlands. At the same time, chemistry brought pollution and thus inconvenience to local residents; the Chemours chemical plant in Dordrecht is a current example. The development of the sector was an erratic process, in which the course set was frequently thwarted.
Breaking the contradiction between economy and ecology is still the central challenge for the chemical industry in the Northern Netherlands. 'Green chemistry' is a promise with which the sector can organically grow into a self-confident engine for the northern economy.
The industrialization of an agricultural region
In the first half of the twentieth century, the North suffered from high and structural unemployment. While the population grew, there was less work in the agricultural sector because of the mechanization of agriculture. This while agriculture had traditionally provided much of the employment. The North had little major industry, and had a limited service sector. This problem of lagging industrialization was also recognized by the central government. After World War II was all about reconstruction, economic recovery and eventually economic growth, plans were also made for economically disadvantaged regions. By investing in these regions, industrial growth could be stimulated. It was also a means by which the population was to be better distributed across the country.
The government wanted to achieve this by spreading industrialization, in which the chemical industry had an important role to play. In 1949, the first of a total of eight industrialization memoranda was issued; the second memorandum - Landelijke spreiding der industrialisatie door regionale concentratie - appeared a year later. This second note paid much attention to the regional-economic problems in the northern Netherlands. The note identified three development areas eligible for government support: eastern Friesland, eastern Groningen and southeastern Drenthe. Of the 54 million released by this memorandum for government support, as much as 91 percent was devoted to the North.
Industrialization was planned and rigorous. For example, the industrialization of Delfzijl meant demolishing entire villages to make room for the expansion of the port. Today, for example, one farmhouse and the medieval church of the village of Heveskes still stand, lonely amid the industry.
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