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Water initiatives subsidy

Waterschap Hollandse DeltaNetherlandsup to 10k EURclosed

Nonprofit legal entities can receive 20% of eligible costs for rainwater storage, infiltration and other water-related climate adaptation projects in the Hollandse Delta management area.

Fund measures that collect and store rainwater on your site, reduce runoff into sewers or surface water, or help soil retain and infiltrate water to reduce demand during dry periods. The project must also increase public knowledge and awareness of climate change.

The grant covers 20% of eligible project costs, including VAT, up to €10,000. Eligible costs must be at least €250. The percentage and cap apply to all phases together. They also apply across projects forming one functional unit: a development plan by one party, or adjoining buildings or plots owned or managed by one party.

The grant excludes work without a water-adaptation purpose, legally required work, structural provisions, gardens for new homes, replacement of existing planting or permeable paving, your own or employees’ time and lost income, and labour not carried out by a gardener or contractor.

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Eligibility

  • Apply as a nonprofit legal entity, such as a school, owners’ association or housing association. Your purpose and activities must respect fundamental legal principles.
  • Carry out the project yourself or commission it within the Hollandse Delta management area. It must comply with applicable law and policy and serve the water board, its constituents or its interests. Provide a realistic balanced budget with explanations and quotations.
  • The work must fall outside your routine projects or activities. A previously funded project cannot receive another contribution, except for phased delivery within the shared limits.
  • Apply at least four weeks before starting and plan to start within six months of the award. Work already started is excluded, except where an existing project is demonstrably expanded with an eligible water-related adaptation measure. Wait to carry out the new adaptation elements until you have applied.
  • The board refuses funding if it considers that you have or can obtain the money needed to carry out the activities properly. It can waive this financial-means test for activities of exceptional importance to the water board. It can also depart from specified programme cost, assessment, finalisation or refusal rules in cases of overriding unfairness; this is discretionary.
  • The board may also refuse an application where there is good reason to expect that the work, grant obligations or proper financial reporting will not be completed, or where the applicant is bankrupt, has payment suspension, or has requested either procedure.

How to apply

Status
closed
Closes
Round restrictions
  • For nonprofit legal entities; submit before 1 November 2026 and at least four weeks before starting. Applications are considered in order of receipt until funds are exhausted.

Submit the complete signed application form at least four weeks before the project starts and before 1 November 2026. Use the nonprofit application route on the water board’s subsidy page, or send the form and attachments to stimuleringsregeling@wshd.nl or Handelsweg 100, 2988 DC Ridderkerk. Include the project description, objectives, balanced income-and-expenditure budget, explanations and quotations. Disclose applications to other public bodies for the same activities. The board may request statutes, accounts or a financial-position report, and an accountant’s statement.

Applications are considered in order of receipt while the budget remains available. The administrator’s 12 October 2026 update expressly allows new nonprofit legal-entity applications.

After completion, submit the signed finalisation form within six weeks and by 31 May 2027, with an activity report, financial report and before-and-after photos. Compare the intended and achieved objectives and explain differences in the activity report. Include the underlying supporting documents. If law or the award requires annual accounts, submit those instead of a separate financial report. The final grant is based on actual costs, excludes activity revenues from the calculation and cannot exceed the award. The board decides on complete award and finalisation applications within six weeks.

Keep financial records that show relevant rights, obligations, payments and receipts, and allow inspection when requested. Comply with obligations attached to the award and notify the board as soon as it becomes likely that work or obligations cannot be completed. Before finalisation, the board may withdraw or reduce the award for failure to start within six months, unmet obligations, incorrect or incomplete information, or an incorrect award you knew or should have known about.

Payment follows within six weeks of finalisation. Advances are discretionary and limited to 80% of the awarded grant. The board may withdraw or change an award if assets are attached, payment suspension is granted or bankruptcy is declared.

At finalisation, the board may reduce the grant if activities were not fully carried out, obligations were not met, incorrect or incomplete information affected the award, or you knew or should have known the award was incorrect. Costs that cannot reasonably be regarded as necessary are excluded.

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