Look! There is a dark basement under these blue and yellow shapes in Seghwaert

Every cyclist or walker on the Kangoeroepad knows these two colored things. The blue quarter round and the yellow tube are on a lawn along the path, just before the street Salamandersloot. They have been here for decades, but for what? Is it art or something else? Indebuurt sought it out with a surprising outcome.

The blue and yellow objects are a typical example of street objects that have always been there, but almost nobody knows why. If we ask local residents or passers -by, most of them say: “No idea.” But what most Zoetermeerders don’t know is that there is a hidden basement here deep underground.

Viewing hole closed

For an answer to this question, Indebuurt speaks with Daniel Bakker, asset specialist pumps and ground at the municipality of Zoetermeer. It appears that the blue and yellow shapes have to do with the adjacent sewer pumping station.

You can reach the technical space underground via the Blue Object. Through the yellow tube you used to be able to slip into that space from the street. Because people threw junk in that tube, the municipality decided years ago to close the viewing hole.

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Underground space

Daniel has the key to the blue door and therefore has access to the technical room. Via a steep staircase you reach an underground and tiled space with a control cabinet, sink, tubes and the end of the yellow viewing tube. On the display of the control cabinet, Daniel can see how it is with the sewage water in the adjacent pumping station.

Hoike

Next to the colored objects you see the pumping station standing on a slightly higher hill. It is a so -called auger pumping station and is fenced with fences. Daniel also has the key to that. Above the eight -meter deep pumping station is a steel rack, which looks like the construction on which you hang a swing. Only here is a tap that can raise one of the two pumps underground. “This happens, for example, during maintenance work or when a pump has stalled,” says Daniel.

Dirty underpants

Daniel opens the steel shutters of the pumping station. In a well of eight meters deep our sewage water flows in the direction of the Canadalaan, the Oostergo in Meerzicht and then to the Harnaschpolder in Den Hoorn.

The floating balls on the water are striking. These turn out to be fat balls that, according to Daniel, are difficult to filter out of the water. On the floor next to the shutters are items of clothing such as a T-shirt and a few underpants. “It regularly happens that a pump gets stuck because something is stuck. People throw everything in the toilet, such as garments. We stop the pump, raise it and remove it by hand.”

In the video below you can see what the technical space and the sewer pumping station look like on the inside.