Abstract
THE epoch-making enterprise on which the Dutch nation embarked in 1920, and which is ultimately destined to add to the Netherlands more than half a million acres, or about 7 per cent of the former area of the country, is now about to be advanced a further stage towards completion. It is announced from The Hague that a sum of two million florins (about £154,000) has just been voted in the national budget for continuing the work of reclaiming the Zuider Zee, and it is likely that additional grants will follow shortly.The scheme was described in detail in an article which appeared in the issue of NATURE of September 21, 1929 (p. 446), at which date the first section, the North-west Polder of 50,000 acres, was at the point of complete enclosure. This polder was pumped clear of water in the following year, and it has since been brought into cultivation with satisfactory results. It is now intended to proceed with the reclamation of the second section, the Northeast Polder, containing 117,000 acres. The cost is estimated at about £9,600,000 and the work will take about five years, providing work for about 5,500 men. Another ten years will be required to bring the salt-saturated soil into a completely effectivestate of productivity. The outer dyke, or embankment, enclosing the polder, starts from Lemmer in Friesland and follows a widely sweeping curve, first westerly, then southerly and finally easterly to a point on the coast-line north of Kampen. It will be 35 miles long, and for a great part of that distance will run parallel to a new canal. The reclaimedarea will lie at two different levels, one about 13 feet and the other about 18 feet below water-level at Amsterdam, and three large pumping stations are to be provided to deal with the fresh-water drainage after completion.
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The Reclamation of the Zuider Zee. Nature 137, 694–695 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137694c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137694c0