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The National Environmental Monument was designed by Belgian artist Lidy Hoewaer and was unveiled in 1987, the European Year of the Environment, on the beach in Vlissingen. After being damaged by a spring storm in 1991, the monument was relocated in August 1993 to a slope near the Oranjemolen in Vlissingen.
The monument was initiated by the Stichting Jaar van het Milieu (Foundation Year of the Environment) and represents a piece of drifted and solidified oil. The installation of the monument faced several challenges, including the need to change the zoning plan for the beach.
The monument, which cost 339,000 Dutch guilders, was funded by the European Commission (75,000 guilders), the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, and several sponsors. Even before the unveiling, activists protested the monument's placement, arguing that establishing an environmental monument was a sign of giving up the fight for a better environment. A week before the unveiling, the monument was vandalized with paint by anonymous activists from the Schone Schelde group. During the unveiling by then Environment Minister Ed Nijpels, opponents also made their voices heard. Activists from the Noordzee working group, the national association for the preservation of the Wadden Sea, and Vogelbescherming Nederland (Dutch Bird Protection) covered the monument to draw attention to phosphate discharges in the Westerschelde by chemical company Hoechst and the cadmium issue in the Nieuwe Waterweg.
Since the relocation of the monument to the slope near the Oranjemolen, it no longer gets submerged during high water. This loss is somewhat compensated by the visibility of the Borssele nuclear power plant and the Dow Chemical facility near Terneuzen in the new context.
External links
editFurther reading
edit- Nico Out. Straatbeeld Walcheren, Stichting Straatbeeld, Vlissingen, 1993.
- I.L. Szénássy. Het nationaal milieu-monument te Vlissingen van Lidy Hoewaer, Samsom H.D. Tjeenk Willink, Alphen aan den Rijn, 1987.