Amsterdam is installing hundreds of tiny staircases along its canals to keep wildlife safe
These special steps were installed as part of an initiative to protect wildlife that sometimes falls into the water and cannot climb out because of the high sides.
Now, Amsterdam is looking to create similar escape routes for its small creatures.
So far this year, 19 cats have drowned in the city's canals, a statistic that has prompted local pro-animal party PvdD to propose taking a leaf from Amersfoot's book.
Now, Amsterdam councillors have voted to earmark €100,000 to make the waterways safer for animals.
Amsterdam to install canal escape routes for cats
In June this year, Amersfoort, in the province of Utrecht, announced it was installing 300 exit ladders along its waterways to help prevent wildlife from drowning.
Now, Amsterdam has agreed to ask the animal welfare organisation Dierenambulance to identify where cats and other creatures are most frequently unable to escape from the water along its canals.
The council will use this information to select sites for the new escape routes.
According to the Dutch news site Parool, the city's animal welfare chief Zita Pels was already in favour of a project like this, but abandoned the idea because of a lack of funds.
The PvdD, however, highlighted that there is an unused €100,000 in her budget reserved for so-called 'wildlife exit points', allowing the scheme to get the go-ahead.
14 people die a year in Amsterdam's canals
Cats can accidentally fall into canals when they get startled, Maggie Ruitenberg from the feline information centre Katten Kenniscentrum told Dutch daily Volkskrant.
Although cats are able to swim, they get exhausted quickly because their fur is weighed down by the water. 'A ladder can really save their life, as long as there are enough of them,' she said.
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Official figures also show that around 14 people a year drown in Amsterdam's canals by accident.
Between 2014 and 2024, 142 people died in the city's waterways, many of them foreign tourists who fell in when drunk or under the influence of drugs.
In some places in the city, renovated canals have been fitted with special ledges that people can hold on to if they find themselves struggling to get out of the water.
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