Northeast Polder

(Local Name: Noordoostpolder) The Noordoostpolder is an area of 47,600 hectares/119,000 acres of fens reclaimed from the IJsselmeer between 1937 and 1942. Now a peninsula projecting into the IJsselmeer from the east, it has been since 1986 part of the new province of Flevoland. On the south the polder is separated from the neighboring Flevopolder and from the mainland by the narrow Ketelmeer; in the north it reaches up to the little town of Lemmer; and on the east it is bounded by a narrow strip of sandy heathland, up to 5m/16ft above sea level, running from north- west to southeast.

This expanse of fertile fens, lying between 4.5m/15ft and 5.7m/19ft below sea level, is drained by a complicated system of