The first plan for reclaiming a part of the Zuiderzee was published in 1849, more than 180 years after Henric Stevin had launched his bold idea. During the 19th century ten plans were published: Huge projects even covering the whole western part of the adjacent Waddenzee as well as designs for the mere embankment of the south-western edge of the Zuiderzee. There were plans including an enclosing dam and plans showing only polders. All draftsmen had to find solutions for the discharge of excess water from the hinterland and for the continuance of the shipping routes. More and more people became convinced of the feasibility of the idea. Halfway the 19th century this confidence was rather out of place, because we know now that at thattime the know-how and the technical means available were not yet matched for e.g. the construction of an enclosing dam. One of the proposals led to an act in 1877, which, however, was withdrawn shortly after (Van Duin and De Kaste, 1986).
Towards the endof the century the promoters of the Zuiderzee project summoned up their forces and founded in 1885 the Zuiderzee Association. This association appointed an engineer Mr. C. Lely as her adviser, who wrote a set of
eight highly valuable technical papers. He had a broad knowledge and a sharp notion of hydraulic engineering works and the present project does not deviate essentially from his proposals. He was Minister of Public Works in three Cabinets, but - for various reasons - his first attempts to present anact for parliamentary approval were not successful. But then the events helped him. The First World War brought a food-shortage to the country and in 1916 a bad stormflood afflicted large parts of the west coast of the Zuiderzee. Lely once more launched an act and now on 14th of June 1918 the Zuiderzee Act passed the Parliament based on a plan as given in Figure 4.
Figure 4. The plan of Lely to close off the Zuiderzee and reclaim land on the form er sea bottom
From then the whole process has gone fast.In 1919 a special governmental organization was installed. In 1920 the very dike building started and since then the work has been going on, be it with many ups and downs. Twice a
governmental committee recommended acceleration of the further progress of the project. Many times, indeed, the government got the advice to cut down the expenses, to slow down or even to stop all activities in the IJsselmeer.
Remarkably, the spirit to continue was sometimes evident in the very periods of depression. The main provisions of the plan were:
- the construction of a 2.5 km barrier dam from North Holland to Wieringen and a 30 km barrier dam from Wieringen to Friesland;
- the reclamation of five polders (Table 1 and Figure 5).
Table 1. The IJsselm eerpolders. A rea, dike construction and developm ent period Polder Area in hectares Dike construction Development period Wieringermeer
North Eastern Polder Eastern Flevoland Southern Flevoland Markerwaard postponed
20,000 48,000 54,000 43,000
1927 1936 1950 1959
1930 1942 1957 1968
Figure 5 The Zuiderzee project
The enclosure and partial reclamation of the Zuiderzee was undertaken for three reasons:
- to increase protection against flooding;
- to improve water management;
- to enlarge the area of farmland to increase food production.
In accordance with the latter, the Wieringermeer and the North Eastern Polder have become predominantly agricultural areas. These two polders were built just before, partly during and immediately after the Second World War. During this period food production and self-sufficiency in food were of utmost importance.
The growing shortage of space in the Netherlands, and the fact that Flevoland lies close to the densely populated western part of the country, have brought about a change in the original ideas about the utilization of the polders. In the meantime there became gradually an overproduction in food in the Netherlands as well as in the European Union. Agricultural land became less important while urban development, recreation and the possibility to create valuable wetlands made increasing demands on space. Increasing population and fast growing prosperity in the Netherlands supported these increasing demands heavily. In terms of land use, Eastern Flevoland may be regarded as a turning point. Lelystad, a 'new town'for some 100,000 inhabitants, is a prove of this. The land use in the polders directly after reclamation as a percentage of the total area is given in Table 2.
Table 2. Land use in the IJsselmeerpolders directly after reclamation as a percentage of the area of the concerned polder
Land use Wieringermeer North Eastern
Polder Eastern Flevoland Southern Flevoland Farmland
Residential areas Woods and nature reserves
Drains, dikes and roads
87 1 3 9
87 1 5 7
75 8 11
6
50 25 18 7
In 1932 the Enclosing Dam - 30 km in length - including discharge sluices and shiplocks was accomplished. Meanwhile a little experimental polder - 30 ha - was constructed (1927) to gain experience with agriculture on the Zuiderzee bed deposits. Already in 1930, two years before the Enclosing Dam was completed, the water had been evacuated out of the first polder; the Wieringermeer, 20,000 ha of
salty, saturated sediments had to be brought under cultivation and colonized. For this purpose a special government service, called IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority was established (Van Duin and De Kate, 1986). This authority has been confronted with lots of highly varying problems, but in the beginning a main item was: how to transform the soft mud into normal farmers land? It was known that several earlier schemes failed - at least initially - because the desiccation of the mud (the ripening as this process was called) did not proceed satisfactorily. As a matter of fact during the further development of the project lots of other problems arose, like:
- the choice of pioneer crops;
- management of a large (20,000 ha) state farm;
- lowering of the ground-water table in adjacent lands;
- how to develop orchards, forests, urban areas and nature reserves;
- how to establish or promote the development of a new society;
- how to integrate multiple land use in plan development;
- how to develop large scale urban areas and man-made nature conservation areas.
The solving of these problems required extended and varied studies, which is reflected by the fact that about one fourth of the employees of the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority were working in the research divisions.
When the fourth polder, Southern Flevoland, was under development, and the fifth one the Markerwaard, was under discussion, the discussions did not deal with the technical aspects of the polder anymore. Everyone recognized the ability of the authorities concerned to create a polder. The discussions covered - apart from the use of the new land - mainly the effects of making the Markerwaard for the areas outside its dikes, like:
- geohydrological consequences, subsidence and damage to buildings in the adjacent villages;
- the possible development and blooming of blue algae in the lakes between the new polder and the adjacent land;
- the changes in environment.
By that time these were the real research questions and not the technical problems in making the polder. In addition there were the questions:
- when do we really need the polder;
- can it be financed with private money.
Although there was a good offer to finance the polder with private money, in 1990 the government decided that the Markerwaard was not needed at short and medium term and that still sufficient land for urban and industrial development was available elsewhere in the country.