It’s driving you crazy: Warder’s swimming pool on the Markermeer has already been flooded for the fourth time this year. The volunteers had just cleaned the paddling pool when it happened again last Monday. “It’s a shame,” sighs Jan de Jong, swimming pool board member, about the flooding.
The sandbags are in front of the doors of the changing rooms, the concrete stones on the shore are crooked due to the forces of nature and a small piece of the backrest of the benches still protrudes above the water. The extent of the damage cannot yet be seen, but it is significant, thinks Jan de Jonge of the swimming pool board.
“The tiling has probably all sagged, and that will cost you thousands of euros.” Money they don’t have, which is why they had already started a fundraising campaign.
“Maybe we can also get something from the municipality,” says De Jong. The pumps that are supposed to dry the site are also in poor condition. And there are many more cost items. It is not possible to take out insurance because the swimming pool is located outside the dike.
Harry Arzoni is a former board member and still involved as a volunteer. He regards the swimming pool as his baby. “It is already 113 years old. We are royal. That must be preserved. In the summer, people come to swim here from all over the area. From Hoorn, Purmerend to Edam and Volendam. It is beautiful here.”
The opening of the pool has already been postponed for the coming summer season. “We normally open in May, but that will certainly not be possible now. That will be early June,” says Jan de Jong. For the time being, the volunteers are taking it easy with renovating the swimming pool. “The water in Markermeer is still far too high,” De Jong explains, “and everything floods again when there is an easterly wind.”