Tiengemeten. Many Dutch people know it, or have at least heard of it. Some even know roughly where it is situated. But there are only few who can say that they've actually been there. And so what? Why should you go to this forgotten snippet of polder land, that has been lying there for ages, inconspicuously, in the middle of the water of the Haringvliet inlet? A place, besides, where you will never go accidentally, or on an impulse while on your way from A to B. For you really have to take some trouble to get there anyway.

A glance at the map shows that Tiengemeten is the last real island in the southwestern part of the Netherlands. All other islands in the delta formed by the rivers Rhine, Maas and Scheldt have been linked up with each other or with the mainland by means of dams and dikes, or via bridges and tunnels. That's why, through the years, Tiengemeten has hardly been touched by what we usually call 'progress'. And as it seems this situation will -happily- remain unchanged for the next decades. Tiengemeten will continue to be the territory of those who are searching for peace and quiet, for nature and for the 'island feeling'.

The name of Tiengemeten is derived from the 'gemet', an old Dutch square measure of about 5.000 m². Halfway through the sixteenth century there was a sandbank lying here in the Haringvliet inlet that submerged at high tide only and that had a size of 10 of these 'gemets', about 0.05 km², by then. The Dutch, always greedy to reclaim land, built a dike around it to stop the periodical floodings and named the island that they so created 'Tiengemeten'.

From 1765 till 1805 the island served as a quarantine place for ships returning from remote countries. If a contagious disease was found on board the ship had to stay there until it had run its course. There was a quarantine building on the island, also referred to as 'Pesthuis' (Plague house) where sick sailors could be nursed. Those who died from the disease where buried on the island. 

In 1805 the quarantine was closed and on its place a naval depot was established, including barracks and a powder magazine. Because of its isolated location an ideal place for such an 'explosive' establishment! In 1958 the depot was closed and the Dutch Defense Ministry sold the site to the 'N.V. Tiengemeten', the company that had been founded to manage the island.

In the course of time the sea and, in particular, the rivers Rhine and Maas continuously deposited large amounts of sediment on the island. The  silted land, here called 'slik' (mud flat), was then diked in to form a new piece of reclaimed land. This way the island grew larger and larger, from the original ten 'gemets' in the seventeenth to almost 10 km² in the twentieth century. The damming of the Haringvliet inlet in 1970, as part of the Delta Works, largely stopped this process.

For centuries life babbled on quietly on Tiengemeten. It was private property for a long time. A handful of farmers were living there, leasing the land and growing wheat, potatoes, sugar beet, chicory and a few more crops. Nothing was really happening here. Or it should be the flood disaster of 1953, that struck the southwestern part of the Netherlands during the night of January 31st and February 1st and that did not spare Tiengemeten. At several places the dikes collapsed and within a few hours the flood submerged the whole island, killing two of its inhabitants. A tragedy for the small population of the island, but in the light of the total number of over 1,800 casualties of this disaster it was not more than just a minor issue in the news bulletins of those days.

Tiengemeten really became news after it had been acquired by the construction and dredging company Volker Stevin in 1967. It was crystal clear from the start that the company was not primarily interested in the agriculture on the island. But the inhabitants must have been scared out of their wits when they read in the newspapers about the plans that were being developed for their island. It seemed to be the end of the peace on Tiengemeten.

Tiengemeten in the 'Digital Replica of The Netherlands' by TerraDesk

One of those plans was to use the island as a storage for sludge that came from the dredging of rivers and harbors and that was so highly polluted that it could not be dumped without precautions. It had to be stored in specially constructed, diked basins, adequately shielded from the outside world. Well, Tiengemeten offered Volker Stevin a potential sludge storage as large as 750 hectares. As it was already surrounded by a dike it was cheap and almost ready for use. Happily, the plan did not come off. 

But is was not over yet. In the course of the seventies and the eighties of the past century Tiengemeten was seriously in the picture as a possible location for a new nuclear power plant, for the construction of a second national airport to replace Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven, as a wind park location and for the establishment of a holiday and recreation resort. None of these plans went through. Volker Stevin lost its interest in the island and sold it off to the insurance giant AMEV in 1987. 

In 1994 the provincial government took the decision to designate Tiengemeten as a green area. Three years later AMEV sold the island to the 'Vereniging Natuurmonumenten' (Association for the preservation of natural reserves), the Netherlands' largest organization in the area of nature and environment. The islanders heaved a sigh of relief; doom seemed to be averted definitively. Too early, as it would turn out soon!

For Natuurmonumenten came up with a development plan for the island that does not provide room for agriculture! On Tiengemeten, nature will have free play. For the first time on this scale the Dutch will voluntarily give up a piece of their reclaimed land and return it to the sea. At several places the dikes around the island will be lowered. The water pouring in and out will change the land to a swampy jungle, with a wide variety of herbal and animal life. Splendid, of course, but the farmers will have to leave for it. 

Most of the inhabitants have already made the best of a bad bargain; they have accepted a compensation package from Natuurmonumenten and left. At present, in the year 2003, only one farm is still operational. Only after these last inhabitants have left, Natuurmonumenten can start with the realization of the development plan. As it seems now this will not be before 2007. Until then the fields will continue to be tilled, to prevent degradation of the land.

A visit to Tiengemeten starts as it should be with a real island: at the ferry. In this case it's the 'Sint Antonius' (St. Anthony), that maintains a one-hour service between Nieuwendijk on the mainland and the little ferry bridge on the island. If you miss the ferry you have time for a cup of coffee in the nearby restaurant that is suitably named 'Veerdienst' (Ferry service). Not a bad idea anyway, as on the island your catering options are zero. You will be completely dependant on what you've put in your own rucksack over there. 

During the crossing you can already take a glance of the island. It doesn't show much more than a sturdy dike, with the crowns of trees and some rooftops showing above it, arousing your curiosity of what's hiding behind. That dike was built only after the flood disaster of 1953, when the old dikes burst at over twenty places and the whole island was flooded. All inner dikes around the little polders that had been successively reclaimed in the course of the centuries were then removed, making the whole island to one single polder.

When I get off the ferry and look around, at first sight the scenery doesn't seem to be very different from that on the mainland. The same flat polder land, the same dead straight roads flanked by tree rows, under the same magnificent Dutch skies. But it feels different yet. Maybe it's because you can see the horizon here wherever you look around, formed by the sea dike. There's nothing to obstruct your view. It gives you the feeling that you can see until the edges of the world. And what's beyond is a different world, that is not really relevant at the moment. 

But the major difference becomes apparent when you have walked for a while, away from the ferry with its noisy diesel engine. It is the silence that falls upon you like a blanket. Particularly the absence of traffic noise is striking, accustomed to it as we are in this crowded country. There are some cars on Tiengemeten and some farming machines, but traffic routes are non-existent. That's why the continuous background noise is lacking here that you often notice only when the rest is quiet. Here, there is real silence. A great blessing!

The road leads along some big, deserted farmhouses and a row of smaller dwelling houses. Together, with some imagination, you might call this a hamlet. But it isn't, as there is no church, no pub, no shop, nothing but a little stall in front of one of the houses with local honey for sale. Nobody is attending it.

A little further I turn off the paved road and follow the indicated walking route in southward direction along a path between the fields. The space and the peace are a blessing. You can hardly believe that the city of Rotterdam is less than twenty kilometers away from here.

In front of me I see two other walkers. A small group of cyclists is riding westward along a narrow asphalt road that I'm crossing. In the distance a farming machine is moving over the field. So this is the Tiengemeten scenery that is going to vanish. You'll have to hurry if you still want to see it as it is now. 

In the meantime I seem to have lost the route; at least I don't see any color-headed posts anymore. It's no problem, as you cannot really get lost on Tiengemeten. I'm on my way to the south side of the island, where I hope to get an impression of the future Tiengemeten in the area outside the dike. 

Soon after I have walked straight across the island and I am on top of the dike. Here I can, at a single glance, oversee the 'old' as well as the 'new' Tiengemeten. At my left hand is the geometrical, orderly landscape of the polder as it still is now, at my right hand is the wild wilderness of the land outside the dike, the 'Blanke Slikken'. 

Barely half a century ago they would build a new dike around this area, dig some ditches for drainage and build some roads to go easily to all corners; then they would plough the land and sow wheat, or put in potatoes, and voilà, another piece of polder added! Now the opposite is going to occur. 

For this reason the Delta Plan of 1958, which was developed to prevent a similar disaster from happening in the future, included a dam to cut off the inlet from the sea. But, unlike at other places in the delta area, a completely closed dam was not an option here, as the Haringvliet serves as the major discharge for the waters of the rivers Rhine and Maas into the North Sea. To solve this problem a 1-kilometer long sluice complex was constructed in the Haringvliet dam, consisting of 17 outlet sluices that can be opened for draining off the river water into the sea at low tide, while they are closed at high tide to prevent the sea from pouring into the Haringvliet.  

The Haringvliet dam, which was completed in 1970, guaranteed the safety of the people living on the islands, but it also produced major changes to the environment in this area. The tide disappeared from the inlet and salt sea water was replaced by fresh water from the rivers, which had a tremendous impact on herbal and animal life here. This collateral damage to the environment was anticipated, but in the sixties of the past century environmental issues were not on top of the priority list. Safety of the land and the people went above everything. 

In recent years, however, plans are being developed to restore the salt water tidal system, that's to say, to a certain extent. It can be done by leaving the sluices in the dam open, also at high tide, and letting the sea water pour in again. Only at unusual high water levels the doors will be closed, similar to what is being done already with the surge barrier in the Oosterschelde estuary. This project has been dubbed 'Tamed Tide'. 

Natuurmonumenten is a great supporter of these plans, as they go perfectly along with their own plans for giving the water free play on Tiengemeten. But it will take several years for the plans to materialize, as a brackish Haringvliet will bring on problems for the fresh-water provision in the area that must be solved first before the sluices can be opened.  

For slightly less than one hour I am walking through the land outside the dike, parallel to the coast, crossing several creeks running inland with wooden bridges. During this part of the trip I see no one else; I seem to be completely alone in this jungle. Then I am back on the dike and start my walk back, straight across the island, to the ferry bridge. I think it's hard to decide which Tiengemeten I like most: that of the wild, colorful jungle on the mud flats, or that of the flat polder with its straight roads, its tree rows and the white sails popping up above the dike. If is was up to me to choose I would opt for preserving both!

While walking on the dike along the water I see the 'Sint Antonius' already chugging its way across the 'Vuile Gat'. I must hurry if I don't want to miss it and wait for another hour. I take a final look of the vast landscape and firmly resolve to return here some day in the future, to see how the island is doing. I arrive at the ferry bridge in ample time and board the ferry.

More about Tiengemeten and related information

www.natuurmonumenten.nl
Website of the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten (Association for the preservation of Natural Reserves). This link brings you directly to the description of Tiengemeten on this site. Dutch language only.

www.tiengemeten.com
Website about Tiengemeten by film maker Digna Sinke, who is realizing a long-term documentary project about the island. Dutch and English.

www.haringvlietsluizen.nl
Website of the Ministry of Transport and Communication about the plans for a changing management of the Haringvliet sluices. Dutch and English language, summary in French and Japanese.

www.demis.nl/ukharingvliet/mapper.asp
Interactive map of the Haringvliet area by Demis (Decision Management Information Systems) in Delft. Dutch and English language.

www.deltawerken.com
Website about the Delta Project by the Delta Works Foundation Online. Dutch and English versions.

www.zeeuwsarchief.nl/strijdtegenhetwater
Website of the Rijksarchief (Dutch National Archives) about the flood disaster of 1953 and the Delta Works. Dutch language only.

www.delta2003.nl
Official website of the Project Delta 2003, the commemoration of the flood disaster of 1953. Dutch and English language.

August 2003