26 March 2018

#1564 the Netherlands


The ir. D.F. Woudagemaal is a pumping station in the Netherlands, and the largest still operational steam-powered pumping station in the world. On October 7, 1920 Queen Wilhelmina opened the pumping station. It was built to pump excess water out of Friesland, a province in the north of the Netherlands.

In 1967, after running on coal for 47 years, the boilers were converted to run on heavy fuel oil. It has a pumping capacity of 4,000 m³ per minute, 1,000,000 GPM. The pumping station is currently used to supplement the existing pumping capacity of the J.L. Hooglandgemaal in Stavoren in case of exceptionally high water levels in Friesland; this usually happens a few days per year.


Date of Inscription on the List of UNESCO WHS: 1998


Thank you, Heleen !

Sent on: March 21, 2018
Received on: March 26, 2018

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