Markermeer, one of Europe’s largest freshwater lakes is now going to be the coveted hotspots for the bird lovers. Exhibiting Dutch people’s hard work to protect and preserve the nature, this artificial island is to welcome migratory birds and to embrace nature once more.
This vast 700-square-kilometre (270-square-mile) expanse of water, which regulates the water level in the rest of the Netherlands, is nothing but a cloudy mass, devoid of aquatic life.
Now with expert engineering interpretation, the new artificial archipelago of five islands will bring nature back to the low-lying country which suffered by the sea a lot.
A Dutch NGO, Natuurmonumenten, working for the preservation of nature, proposed the project. Being “one of the largest rewilding operations in Europe“, the project, costs 60 million euros ($68 million). The interesting fact about the islet is that it is entirely built with slits – a sedimentary formation halfway between clay and sand.
“Building an island with sand is not that difficult, everyone does it all over the world, and what is unique here is that we use silt,” says Jeroen van der Klooster, the construction head of the archipelago.
The island is designed in such a manner that its ambience will entirely support the migratories. The slits are arranged straight, against the strong ocean current in a 1,200-metre “corridor” only to create a soggy & fertile land where the birds can fetch ample of food for themselves.
Further the island is highlighted with three wooden bird observatories, a house for the island’s caretaker, footbridges – 12 kilometres of length and unpaved roads built on main island which is open to the public. And the remaining four islands,a once-sterile space now returned to natures and exclusively reserved for wildlife and plants.
