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The Zuiderzee Works ( Dutch: Zuiderzeewerken) is a man-made system of dams, land reclamation and water drainage works, and the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the damming off of the Zuiderzee, a large, shallow inlet of the North Sea, and the reclamation of land in the newly enclosed water body by means of polders. Its main purpose was to improve flood protection and create additional land for agriculture.
Original plans for the works date back to the seventeenth century, but it was not until 1913, when Cornelis Lely became minister of transport, that official planning started. The single biggest structure in the project was a 32 km long dam, the Afsluitdijk, protecting the Dutch from the North Sea. But to test the waters the small Amsteldiepdijk was built first, construction of which lasted four years and proved to be a valuable learning experience for the much larger Afsluitdijk. When the Afsluitdijk was finished in 1932, the ZuiderzeeThe Zuider Zee ( Dutch: Zuiderzee was a former shallow inlet of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km inland and at most 50 km wide, with an overall depth of about 4 to 5 meters and a coastline of about 300 km. Its name was completely dammed off and from then on would be called lake IJsselmeer. Total cost of the dam was equivalent to 710 million (2004) US dollars.
After damming off the sea, the next step involved creating new land, new polders. This was achieved by damming off pieces of the IJsselmeer, and then pumpA pump is a mechanical device used to move liquids or gases. Also the heart is an essential pump in humans and animals to move the blood around. The earliest pump was described by Archimedes around 300 BC and is known as the Archimedes screw pump. Pumps wing all the water out. The first polder WieringermeerWieringermeer (population: 12,635) is a municipality in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The municipality covers an area of 309. 37 kmē (of which 102. 70 kmē water). The municipality of Wieringermeer consists the following was closed in 1929 and fully drained in 1930. The third, the Noordoostpolder, was not fully drained until 1942 and played a vital role for the Dutch Underground resistance during World War II, as the fresh polder offered numerous hiding places. After the war, work was started on draining the Flevolands, a massive project totalling almost a 1000 kmē. This area is now home to Almere, which is the fastest growing city in the Netherlands (partially because of its proximity to Amsterdam). Another large polder was planned in the Markermeer, creation of which was and still is heavily debated, as the Markermeer is an important ecological and recreational asset. A new province was created out of the Noordoostpolder and the Flevolands in 1986, thereby completing the Works.
In 1916 the dikes at several places along the Zuiderzee (the current IJsselmeer) broke under the stress put on them by a winter storm, and the land behind them was flooded as had often happened in previous centuries. This particular flooding, however, provided the decisive impetus to implement the existing plans to tame the Zuiderzee. The concept of making the Zuiderzee more docile had first originated in the seventeenth century, but the ambitious solutions sought then were not possible given the technology of the time.
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of the first feasible plans, with the primary objectives being improved protection from the open sea and the prospect of valuable new agricultural land. One of the most ardent proponents was Cornelis Lely, an engineer by profession and later government minister, whose 1891 plan would form the basis for what were to become the Zuiderzee Works. It consisted of a large dam connecting the north of North Holland with the western coast of Friesland and the creation of initially four polders in the northwest, the northeast, southeast (later split up into two) and southwest of what would be then renamed the IJsselmeer ( IJssel-lake), with two major lanes of water spared for shipping and drainage. The initial body of water affected by the project was 3,500 kmē. Opposition came primarily from fishermen along the Zuiderzee who would lose their livelihood, but also from other people living in coastal areas along the more northerly Wadden Sea who feared higher water levels as a result of the closure, as well as those who doubted whether it was financially possible in the first place.
However, when Lely became Minister of Transport and Public Works in 1913, the government started working on official plans to enclose the Zuiderzee. Due to the 1916 flooding and a continuously threatening food shortage during the First World War, support for the project grew. On June 14 1918 the Zuiderzee Act was passed and the mammoth undertaking began. The goals of the Act were threefold:
After the Dienst der Zuiderzeewerken (Zuiderzee Works Department), the administration responsible for overseeing the construction and initial management, was set up in May 1919, work could commence in earnest. It was decided not to start building the main dam first, but rather to test the waters with a smaller dam, the Amsteldiepdijk across the Amsteldiep separating the island of Wieringen from the North Holland mainland. Despite its limited length of just 2.5 km, the dike took four years to build, from 1920 to 1924. It had nevertheless turned out to be a valuable learning experience which was put to use in the later projects.
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