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Comment by hutzlibu | Hacker News Reader

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hutzlibu·

"The waterschappen don't stop their pumps out of hospitality or something,"

So do they get compensation?

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Believe it or not, in a lot of modern countries around the world, compensation is not the guiding priority of society.

I don't actually know, but waterschappen are elected bodies (in elections that are completely separate from those for local and national government, and in which all residents, including foreigners, can vote).

Presumably making the effort to allow skating is a vote winner. Even in places outside Friesland, when it looks like skating will be possible various authorities take steps to encourage ice formation by closing sluice gates and stopping boat traffic.

I don't think they do, pretty sure they stop out of hospitality..

It's actually pretty well organised, since it's a big event, lots of things need to come together to be able to organise it in 48hrs time. Also the Dutch government has classified it as a so-called 'GRIP-1' type event, which means that all kinds of things have to be coordinated with the local & national government.

There is a great documentary (in Dutch) that shows what the foundation behind the Elfstedentocht has to go through every year to make sure they're ready in case the conditions are right to organise the race, not sure if it's available outside of NL:

https://www.npostart.nl/VPWON_1302414

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