Oostelijke Polders is a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

located in the

Nickerie District Nickerie is a predominantly rural district of Suriname located on the north-west coast. Nickerie's capital city is Nieuw-Nickerie. The district borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Coronie to the east, Sipaliwini District, Sipaliwini to the so ...

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

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Hamptoncourtpolder Hamptoncourtpolder or (Hampton Court) is a settlement in the Nickerie District of northern Suriname, about from the district capital, Nieuw Nickerie. In 1821, it started as a sugarcane plantation on the Nickerie River, and was named after Hampto ...

, and

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

. Oostelijke Polders is an agricultural area with a focus on

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

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 v ...

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 enviro ...

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 W ...

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

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

ed for

cultivation. The reserve is 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'') an ...

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 and ...

en'' (artificial mounts). They were located in the middle of the

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, and remains from the

pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

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), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

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 ...

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

Notable people

* Frederick James Alexander Murray (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