Just days after the flood disaster, a Delta Committee was installed. This committee would advise on the implementation of a Delta plan that would increase safety in the Delta area in a sustainable manner. However safe the area had to be, the Nieuwe Waterweg and the Western Scheldt had to remain open due to the economic importance of the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. To be able to construct dams at the mouth of the waterways, a number of auxiliary dams would also have to be built in the Zandkreek, the Krammer, the Grevelingen and the Volkerak. These are called the ‘compartmentalization dams’ because they are said to divide the water into smaller compartments. The Delta Act was passed in 1959 to properly regulate the construction of the dams.