Laarwijk is a settlement and a former sugar

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

in the

Commewijne District Commewijne is a district of Suriname, located on the right bank of the Suriname River. Commewijne's capital city is Nieuw Amsterdam. Tamanredjo is another major town, while Meerzorg is the most populated. The district has a population of 31,4 ...

in Suriname. Laarwijk is situated along the Suriname River and can only be reached by boat (via

Domburg Domburg is a seaside resort on the North Sea, on the northwest coast of Walcheren in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 11 km northwest of the city of Middelburg, the provincial capital ...

History

Laarwijk was founded in 1737. The government bought the plantation on 5 August 1899, and allocated it for small-scale agriculture. In 2020 plans were announced to build a bridge between Laarwijk and Domburg in order to develop the area, and relieve traffic congestion in

Wanica Wanica is a district of Suriname located in the north of the country. Wanica's capital city is Lelydorp, the second-largest city in Suriname. Wanica has a population of 118,222 and an area of 443 km2. Following neighbouring Paramaribo, Wani ...

and Commewijne. Traffic up to now has to use the Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge between

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname' ...

and

Meerzorg Meerzorg (Sranan Tongo: Ansu) is a town and resort (municipality) in Suriname, located on the eastern bank of the Suriname River, directly opposite the capital Paramaribo. Its population at the 2012 census was 12,405. Since 2000 it has been conne ...

Economy

After years of political prevarication in January 2010, Laarwijk has received a connection to the

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describ ...

grid. A cable is pulled from

under the Suriname River. A generator which was installed just before the elections in 1996, had never produced a single kilowatt.

Notable people

Eugène Drenthe Eugène Constantijn Donders Drenthe (12 December 1925 in Laarwijk, Surinam – 30 March 2009 in Rotterdam, Netherlands) was a prominent Surinamese poet and playwright. Biography Drenthe was born in Laarwijk, Surinam, as an illegitimate child of ...

(1925–2009), poet and playwright.

References

* Parts of the article have been translated from Laarwijk article on the

Dutch Wikipedia The Dutch Wikipedia ( nl, Nederlandstalige Wikipedia) is the Dutch-language edition of the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. It was founded on 19 June 2001. As of , the Dutch Wikipedia is the -largest Wikipedia edition, with articles. It w ...

, version on 27 May 2008.

External links

* Populated places in Commewijne District {{Suriname-geo-stub