Oostelijke Polders is a resort in Suriname located in the

Nickerie District Nickerie is a district of Suriname, on the north-west coast. Nickerie's capital city is Nieuw-Nickerie. Another town is Wageningen. The district borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Surinamese district of Coronie to the east, the Suriname ...

. Its population at the 2012 census was 7,153. Villages in the resort include

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Hamptoncourtpolder, and

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

. Oostelijke Polders is an agricultural area with a focus on

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

production. Oostelijke Polder has a clinic and a school.

Bigi Pan Nature Reserve

Oostelijke Polders is home to the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve which is the third largest

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

in the country. It is located in the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

north of the

Nickerie River The Nickerie River is a river in the northwestern part of Suriname. The river originates in the Bakhuis Mountains and then flows to the North where it forms part of the border between the Coronie and Nickerie districts. The river then turns Wes ...

. The reserve has an area of 68,000 hectare of which 15,000 had been poldered for

cultivation. The reserve has been named after the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

in the centre.

Hertenrits

Within the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve there are five ''

terp A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides an ...

en'' (artificial mounts). They were located in the middle of the swamp, and remains from the

pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

had been discovered in the mounts. Some of the finds were 15,000 to 20,000 year old. Hertenrits measures

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s, and was designated a protected area in 1972. There were no laws concerning culture reserves at the time, therefore it was declared a nature reserve in 1972.

Waterloo

Waterloo was a cotton plantation founded in 1819 by James Balfour which later became a sugar plantation. Waterloo would become one of the biggest plantation of Nickerie. In 1936, Waterloo was bought by Amin Sankar. The conditions were bad at the sugar estate, and the contract workers were not allowed to enter or leave the plantation without permission from the owner. In 1969, a strike was called by

Eddy Bruma Eduard Johan "Eddy" Bruma (May 30, 1925 – November 6, 2000) was a Surinamese politician, lawyer and writer. Biography Bruma was imprisoned during World War II, because of his nationalistic activities. After the war, he studied law at the Free U ...

. Sankar fired all workers, and closed the estate. In 2020, Waterloo was taken over by the jungle.

Notable people

Frederick James Alexander Murray Frederick James Alexander Murray (5 September 1907 – 6 May 1954) was a Surinamese politician of the NPS. Murray was born in Waterloo, Nickerie District. At the age of 17, he started work as an assistant teacher. Later he became a qualified te ...

(1907–1954), politician * Dew Sharman (1965), politician and medical doctor.

References

{{coord, 5.8587, N, 56.8853, W, source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Resorts of Suriname Populated places in Nickerie District