Since the end of the 19th century Dutch drainage engineers have had their eye on the Markermeer, a lake situated to the northeast of Amsterdam. Later planners saw it as a potential site for new housing, a second airport or a nuclear power plant.
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Eventually the increasing environmental consciousness in Europe put paid to all these plans. The retrospective exhibition "That Big Emptiness" in the Nieuwland Heritage Centre in Lelystad shows the many plans which have been hatched for the region over the years.
Lake Markermeer lies behind the dyke between Enkhuizen and Lelystad and looks for all the world as if its existence has never been questioned. Not so.
The founding of the Zuiderzeevereniging (Zuider Zee Association) in 1886 was the first step towards pumping dry the then Zuider Zee. Engineer Cornelis Lely headed the thinktank. But the imagined polders never got further than the drawing table during the nineteenth century.
"The work was technically extremely complex," explains Dr André Geurts of the Nieuwland Heritage Centre in Lelystad, the curator of the exhibition.
"Besides which, the Dutch government wasn't prepared to help pay for it. They did not regard it as government business." It was 1918 before the Zuider Zee Act was passed. By then the Dutch government was prepared to spend tax money on polder projects.
Expansion
Shortly afterwards the first serious work was started to reclaim land from the water. Since then, the draining of the Markermeer has repeatedly been on the agenda. However, with the depression in the 1930s, World War Two and the expense of the post-war construction of the Netherlands, the Ministry of Transport and Waterways repeatedly backed off from expensive plans.
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Dr André Geurts |
Consultation
Meanwhile, however, Dutch society had changed. Citizens were more critical and the government was more often prepared to listen to their objections. "Nothing can be decided now without public hearings and consultation" says Dr Geurts. Preservation of Lake Markermeer proved an unending topic of discussion.
Marten Bierman was one of the people who threw themselves into attempts to stop the planned Markerwaard. Firstly with the action group De Lastige Amsterdammers (The Troublesome Amsterdammers), famous for their opposition to the Amsterdam metro system, and later as chair of the Vereniging tot Behoud van het IJsselmeer (Association for the Preservation of Lake IJssel), which was formed in 1972. Marten Bierman comments: "We said immediately that it was a bad plan. Worse, there wasn't even a zoning plan. The government wanted to drain it first and then decide what the land could be used for. That's putting the cart before the horse. You can't do that."
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Cruising Lake Markermeer, a video by Sigrid Deters |
Nature reserve
For more than 30 years the discussion raged about draining the lake. The exhibition "That Big Emptiness" in the Nieuwland Heritage Centre in Lelystad displays a 15-centimetre pile of reports from supporters and opponents of the Markerwaard. The result of a single round of consultation in 1981.
The total amount of paperwork generated takes up metres of filing space. "Looking back, you can almost predict that the polder is never going to happen," says Dr Geurts. "The national government hesitated and whenever a decision was taken, the following cabinet would start moving in the opposite direction."
In 2004, international and national legislation regarding bird and nature conservation put an end to the squabbles. Lake Markermeer became a protected nature reserve.
Still water
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Marten Bierman |
The results are clearly visible. The water in the lake is getting cloudy and silting up due to the absence of natural currents. The food that birds feed on is growing scarcer. The migratory birds, for whom the area was meant as a rest and foraging place, can hardly find anything to eat. Fishing boats from Lake IJssel and huge colonies of cormorants fight for the last of the eels, whose numbers have decreased dramatically.
Opening
There are plans for a permanent opening in the dyke, which will only be closed when there is danger of flooding. Still further in the future Marten Bierman is hoping for a third lock in the IJssel Dam so that both Lake IJssel and Markermeer can slowly become salt again. The open link with the Wadden Sea would transform the whole of Lake IJssel into an inland sea again. Just like before. "This lake will never amount to anything as long as there are no tides" he says, "We have to ensure that nature can return here."
* Translated from Dutch by RNW/Iain Macintyre
Tags: Flevoland, land reclamation, Marken, Markermeer, Netherland, north sea, polder, reclaimed land, zuiderzee, Zuyderzee