“In view of these facts, it was more than time to avoid repetition and it must be said in honor of the mayor of Schoonebeek, the EA Heer Norbruis, that he realized that also the difficulty that the Schoonebeekerdiep is a border river, there was to be and therefore should not be a reason to give in. After a strenuous work of five years, during which foreign conferences were the order of the day, on 16 August 1929 this minister had the pleasure of seeing his work crowned. At that time, in the presence of various authorities, the Queen’s Commissioner, Mr. JT Linthorst Homan, “plunged the first sod into the ground” with which the work was officially commenced.
Much work has gone into this, and great were the objections which had to be removed. Mainly, the realization of the plans was seriously delayed because they had to be approved by both sides, both by the German and the Dutch authorities, which by its nature took a lot of time. It is therefore no surprise that many feared that this plan too would always remain a plan. One should bear in mind that, according to a member of the Board of Provincial Executives stated in his table speech on August 16, 1929, when a drainage plan for the entire province of Drenthe was drawn up by the Provincial Executive at the time, Schoonebeek was not taken into account. , because even the provincial government saw no chance of success, in view of the many difficulties that had to be overcome with regard to the boundary water “Het Schoonebeekerdiep”, then people realize that a piece of work has been done here that can fully claim everyone’s appreciation. .”