Half of holland is below sea level. All polders and dry lakes. The people living on the land that would later become Holland were "fighting" the water and trying to win land have been doing so for a long ass time.
Holland knows how to fight water. And how to protect oneself from it. We got fucked in 1953.
Practically only the green parts are the parts of Holland that are free of flooding if our waterdefences weren't there.