The installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area demonstrate admirably the outstanding contribution made by the people in Netherlands to the technology of handling water. There is no drainage network of this kind or of comparable antiquity anywhere else in the Netherlands or in the world. Criterion (iv): The Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is an extremely ingenious hydraulic system which still functions today and which throughout the ages made it possible to settle and cultivate a large area of peat land. AuthenticityThe Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout, with its historic ‘high and low polder areas with natural drainage’, watercourses, mills and millraces, pumping stations, outlet sluices and Water Board Assembly Houses is practically unchanged. At the same time, the Kinderdijk-Elshout World Heritage property is a protected nature reserve under the Nature Conservancy Act [Natuurbeschermingswet], is part of the Natura 2000 network, and is covered by Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the Conservation of Wild Birds.