Home»All Photographs»Netherlands World Heritage click to see more)»Ir. D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station

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. The pumping station is currently used to supplement the existing pumping capacity of the J.L. Hooglandgemaal in case of exceptionally high water levels in Friesland; this usually happens a few days per year. Since 1998 the ir. D.F. Woudagemaal has been listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.