Oostelijke Polders is a resort in Suriname located in the Nickerie District. Its population at the 2012 census was 7,153.[1] Villages in the resort include Glasgow, Hamptoncourtpolder, and Paradise. Oostelijke Polders is an agricultural area with a focus on rice production.[2] Oostelijke Polder has a clinic and a school.[3]

Oostelijke Polders
Resort
Mangrove forest in Bigi Pan Nature Reserve
Map showing the resorts of Nickerie District.   Oostelijke Polders
Country	Suriname
District	Nickerie District
Area
• Total	357 km2 (138 sq mi)
Population  (2012)
• Total	7,153
• Density	20/km2 (52/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-3 (AST)

Bigi Pan Nature Reserve

Oostelijke Polders is home to the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve which is the third largest reserve in the country.[3] It is located in the estuary north of the Nickerie River. The reserve has an area of 68,000 hectare of which 15,000 had been poldered for rice cultivation.[4] The reserve has been named after the lagoon in the centre.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bigi-Pan.

Hertenrits

Within the Bigi Pan Nature Reserve there are five terpen (artificial mounts). They were located in the middle of the swamp, and remains from the pre-Columbian era had been discovered in the mounts.[4] Some of the finds were 15,000 to 20,000 year old.[5]

Hertenrits measures hectares, and was designated a protected area in 1972.[6] There were no laws concerning culture reserves at the time, therefore it was declared a nature reserve in 1972.[7]

Waterloo

Waterloo was a cotton plantation founded in 1819 by James Balfour which later became a sugar plantation.[8] Waterloo would become one of the biggest plantation of Nickerie.[9] In 1936, Waterloo was bought by Amin Sankar.[10] 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.[11] In 1969,[12] a strike was called by Eddy Bruma.[11] Sankar fired all workers,[13] and closed the estate.[12] In 2020, Waterloo was taken over by the jungle.[14]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Waterloo, Suriname.

Notable people

• Frederick James Alexander Murray (1907–1954), politician[15]
• Dew Sharman (1965), politician and medical doctor.[16]

References