Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System

Within the Lower Harz region (in the counties of Harz and Mansfeld-Südharz in central Germany) are still many traces of the historical water management facilities used by the mining industry. In addition to water-carrying ditches and ponds, there are also long-abandoned ditches and dry pond beds. The Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System (German: Unterharzer Teich- und Grabensystem), which forms the major part of these old water management facilities, lies in the central Lower Harz, almost entirely within the borough of the present-day town of Harzgerode.

In the central Lower Harz between the villages of Neudorf, Silberhütte, Straßberg, Großem Auerberg and the upper Lude river is the only, historical, mine water management system in the Lower Harz. Sheltered by the geographical-climatic conditions of the Lower Harz, the system never reached the scale of comparable systems in the Upper Harz and the Ore Mountains. The river catchment areas affected are primarily the source regions and upper reaches of small mountain streams. Parts of the water management system can be dated back as far as 1320. This network of ditches (Kunstgraben), trenches (Rösche) and ponds (Kunstteiche) has been called the Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System.

There are about 300 ponds in the Lower Harz as a whole. Of these, 36 were mining ponds that had a combined retention capacity of 2.6 million m³. The ponds of the Lower Harz Pond and Ditch System thus held about 40% of the capacity of all Lower Harz ponds. This amounts to some 26 ponds, most of which are covered today. They currently serve mainly as drinking water reservoirs.

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