Middlesex County, Ontario | They don't flood the areas on purpose. Een polder is an area below sea or river level. The area is surrounded by dikes and is constantly being pumped out. Pretty much every field is surrounded by slooten, basically ditches. The slooten tie into canals which lead to a pump somewhere. The water level in the sloot is maybe 3 feet below the top of the field. Tiles feed into the sloot.
The classic old picture of the Netherlands is a blond girl with wooden shoes and some tulips with 40 million windmills in the background. The windmills powered the pumps back in those days.
27% of the country is below sea level. God created the Earth but the Dutch created Holland. I grew up in de polder. |
Classic Netherlands muddy harvest pictures
