The Afgedamde Maas (; Dammed-up Meuse) is a former distributary of the Maas River (French: Meuse) in the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

s of

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

and

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

. The Maas splits near

Heusden Heusden () is a municipality and a town in the South of the Netherlands. It is located between the towns of Waalwijk and 's-Hertogenbosch. The municipality of Heusden, including Herpt, Heesbeen, Hedikhuizen, Doeveren, and Oudheusden, merged wit ...

with one channel flowing north until its confluence with the river

Waal WAAL (99.1 FM "The Whale") is a commercial radio station licensed to Binghamton, New York. It airs a classic rock radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media. WAAL is the oldest FM radio station in the Binghamton metropolitan area. It is an ...

(the main distributary of the river

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

) to form the

Merwede The Merwede () etymology uncertain, possibly derived from the ancient Dutch ''Merwe'' or ''Merowe'', a word meaning "wide water") is the name of several connected stretches of river in the Netherlands, between the cities of Woudrichem, Dordrecht a ...

, while the other channel (the

Bergse Maas The Bergse Maas (; pre-1947 spelling: Bergsche Maas) is a canal that was constructed in 1904 to be a branch of the river Maas (French: Meuse) in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Maas splits near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas and the ...

) continues west as the main distributary of the Maas.

History

The current Afgedamde Maas was created in the late Middle Ages, when a major flood made a connection between the Maas and the

at the town of

Woudrichem Woudrichem (; Brabantian: ''Woerkum'') is a city and former municipality in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. History The city of Woudrichem was granted city rights in 1356. Geography The municipality is located at in th ...

. From that moment on, the current Afgedamde Maas was the main branch of the river Maas. The former main branch eventually silted up and is today called the

Oude Maasje The Oude Maasje ("Little Old Meuse") is a former distributary of the river Maas (or Meuse), which runs parallel to the current canalised Bergse Maas. History The hydrological distribution of the Maas changed during the later Middle Ages, when a ...

. With the completion of the Wilhelminasluis ( nl) in 1896, the connection between the Maas and Rhine was closed. The resulting separation of the rivers Rhine and Maas reduced the risk of flooding and is considered to be the greatest achievement in Dutch hydraulic engineering before the completion of the

Zuiderzee Works The Zuiderzee Works ( nl, Zuiderzeewerken) is a man-made system of dams and dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, in total the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The proje ...

and

Delta Works The Delta Works ( nl, Deltawerken) is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works con ...

. In 1904, the Maas was damned off at its southern end and given an artificial mouth, the

. The closed off portion was then named the ''Afgedamde Maas'' and was connected to the Bergse Maas via the Heusden Canal to retain shipping between the Maas and Rhine. Floods of the waterway in 1993 and 1995, however, created the need to be able to close the Heusden Canal off from the Bergse Maas and maintain a fixed water level, and the Kromme Nolkering ( nl)

control lock A control lock, guard lock or stop lock differs from a normal canal lock in that its primary purpose is controlling variances in water level rather than raising or lowering vessels. A control lock may also be known as a tide lock where it is used t ...

was completed in 2002.

Transport

There is a car

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

, not operating on Sundays, and a foot passenger ferry

References

{{Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Rivers of Gelderland Rivers of North Brabant Rivers of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Rivers of the Netherlands Land van Heusden en Altena Geography of Altena, North Brabant Zaltbommel