Wisboom Pumping Station

A powerhouse of a machine

At Kinderdijk, everything revolved around wind power. That is, until 1868, when Wisboom Pumping Station was built. This steam-powered pumping station made an enormous difference to the way we regulated water in the Netherlands.

A single windmill could pump enough water away to fill ten bathtubs a minute, obviously a very clever thing to do if you rely only on wind power. Wisboom Pumping Station, however, could certainly top that, as it had enough power to do the work of seven windmills at once. Then, in 1924, when electricity was introduced, enough water to drain a large pond could soon be pumped away every minute.

The current J.U. Smit Pumping Station can process enough water to fill half an Olympic pool – every sixty seconds, day and night. For the sake of comparison: it would take you eighteen months to fill a pool that big if you used water from a kitchen faucet.

Our old Wisboom Pumping Station is still in operation, so why not see for yourself how powerful and impressive this place still is.

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Learn about the mechanics of the Netherlands

At Wisboom Pumping Station, you can learn how Kinderdijk avoids being flooded. Each stage is explained, starting with how the water enters to how the machines are set in motion to pump it all away. Many of the older parts have been preserved and still work today.

There are all sorts of things to see and do. You can investigate the large scale model of the pumping station, which shows you what it looked like when it was built. Play the interactive windmill game: choose the intensity of the water flow and discover how clever Kinderdijk’s water management is. And don’t forget to peek into the old-school telephone cabinets which are now viewer boxes with audio and visuals.

An operator will be in attendance when you visit to explain how everything works, why the pumping station was so important in the past, and why we still need it today.