The draining of the country doesn't take place the natural way, this causes that all the water from rain which falls on the country stays here. So in order to prevent the dutch inhabitants from drowning a large drainage system was formed.
For instance, the drainage system of the Alblasserwaard consist of three level system.
- The first and lowest level is the polder level. The alblasserwaard is divided in several sections, called polders which means literally "a piece of land below sea level surrounded by a dike". Every polder used to have its own windmill which pumped the water one level up, into the so called boezem.
- The boezem level is the second level.
The boezem water is collected at Kinderdijk where it will be pumped up another level by each of the 16 windmills. The water is pumped up into a reservoir.
- The third level and the highest level is the reservoir
The water stays in the reservoir until the level meets the average high tide of the river, then the water is discarded onto the river lek which takes it via Rotterdam to the sea.
The main attraction or activity in Kinderdijk is the visitors windmill. It is open 7 days a week from 9:30 in the morning until 17:30 in the afternoon. Last visitors are allowed in at 17:00. The inside of the windmill has been preserved and you'll find old pots and pans, wooden shoes everywhere, traditional tapestry, etc. There is also a miller present to operate the mill and answer any questions you may have.
Nowhere around the world you can find a place like Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is the only place in the world where you can find so many windmills concentrated on such a short area. This is one of the reason why Kinderdijk has been added tot the UNESCO world heritage list.
The Kinderdijk milling complex consists of 8 stone brick windmills of the waterboard Nederwaard which were built in 1738, 8 thatched windmills of the waterboard Overwaard built in 1740, 2 stone windmills of the polder Nieuw-Lekkerland built in 1760 and 1 windmill of the polder Blokweer which was built in 1521 and burned down in 1997. Since that day the windmill has been restaured and has been operational since the spring of 2000.
Kinderdijk is the final station of the water of the Alblasserwaard, an area that is approximately 10 by 20 miles wide, before the river Lek takes it to the sea. And even today we still need to dispose the water which comes from rain, but since the 1950's the function of the windmills has been taken over by the pumping station which is one of the largest in the world.
However in case of emergency the windmills still can be used and have been operational up to the Second World War.
As you might have noticed: The Dutch citizens have large history in their battle against the water. |
