Bart Schultz
Initially, this was done by windmills. In the first land reclamation projects, it involved one or more mills. When, at the end of the 16th century, people switched to draining deeper lakes, the windmills were placed in a series, forming a windmill chain. Such a series of windmills could even consist of four windmills, as is the case with the still-functioning series of windmills at Aarlanderveen.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the application of steampower pumping for draining lakes and ponds started. Initially, steampower pumping stations were used in combination with windmills. The first example of this is the draining of the Zuidplas Polder from 1828 to 1840. During this reclamation project, the exclusive use of steampower pumping was not yet considered feasible, and a relatively small auxiliary steampower pumping station was built in addition to the windmills.
The area in which the Polder of Nootdorp is situated consisted primarily of the Nootdorp lakes, that were the result of peat excavation. Some of these lakes are still present. Prior to the actual reclamation, there have been considerable discussions regarding how this reclamation, and particularly the discharge of excess water, should be carried out.
Ultimately, it was decided to drain the polder using only a steampower pumping station. The Polder of Nootdorp – 1,138 hectares, drained in the period 1840–1844 – therefore has the distinction of being the first polder to be drained and subsequently pumped exclusively using a steampower pumping station. Immediately thereafter, the much larger Haarlemmermeer Polder – 18,100 hectares – was drained between 1848 and 1852 using three steampower pumping stations – Leeghwater, Lijnden, and Cruquius. Subsequently, steampower pumping gradually replaced windmills in new reclamation projects as well as in existing polders, lands gained on the sea, and drained lakes.
The steampower pumping station of the Polder of Nootdorp was built in 1841. It operated until 2004. In 1863, the steam engine was replaced by two new steam engines, which in turn were replaced by an electric motor in 1927. After a fire in 1980, this motor was replaced by a new electric motor.
The pumping station was originally equipped with two Archimedes screws: one for a high water level area and one for a low water level area. Over the years, several modifications and improvements were made to the screws. In 1916, the screws were replaced by a centrifugal pump. Ultimately, the pumping station had a capacity of 96 cubic metres per minute, or 12 millimetres per day calculated over the area of the polder. This is a common value for an agricultural polder.
In 2004, the pumping station was replaced by a screw pump station built next to it with a capacity of 150 cubic metres per minute, bringing the capacity to 19 millimetres per day. This increased capacity is certainly necessary, among other reasons, because the polder has since become quite urbanized and the A12 motorway runs through it.
Since the completion of the reclamation in 1844, the Polder of Nootdorp has transformed more or less completely, particularly after the Second World War, from an agricultural polder into a polder with multiple land use, during which significant urbanization has taken place. Although the pumping capacity has considerably been increased in 2004, care must be taken to ensure that water management continues to function properly in the face of the heavier summer showers we regularly face today and the now relatively large paved surface area.
