Gender (creek)

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The Gender is a stream in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. It originates in originally marshy flatlands near Steensel and flows for twenty kilometers through Veldhoven and Meerveldhoven in a general east-northeast direction towards Eindhoven. Here, the Gender originally flowed towards and through the city centre to end in a confluence with the Dommel stream, but by the nineteenth century, the stretch within the old city had been filled and the Gender now ended in De Vest, the city moat (which itself was connected to the Dommel).

Twentieth-century channelisation and the emergence of post-War large-scale residential areas in the Gender basin have seen the last stretch before the city centre cut off with the stream's water flowing into the specilally-built Afwateringskanaal ("Water Regulation Canal"), which connects the Dommel with the Beatrixkanaal and controls the water level of the Dommel.

In 2005, plans were put forth to have the Gender flow through the Eindhoven city centre once again: the "Nieuwe Gender" or New Gender project. The stream is to flow partially underground, partially above-ground and to discharge into the Dommel near the railway station. As of the summer of 2006, large-scale city centre reconstruction plans have included the implementation of the Nieuwe Gender.

The Gender is one of many small streams that drain what once was the marshy heath and moorland of eastern Noord-Brabant and the Kempen plateau. Similar streams include the Dommel, Kleine Dommel, Keersop, Tongelreep, Aa, Binnen-Dieze and De Run. All of these streams at one point or other flow together to finally form River Dieze in Den Bosch, which in turn flows into River Maas.