The Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland is the oldest water authority in the Netherlands, having received commission to coordinate protection of the land from flooding in 1248 from Count William II of Holland and Zeeland. The council conducts surface water management activities in the area known as Rijnland in the province of South Holland. The Netherlands has 21 Waterboards or Waterschappen acting independently from administrative governing bodies to manage Dutch water control activities along with the fine-mazed polder systems. History The first steps towards a governing organisation of water management were taken in the 12th century when the Oude Rijn river silted shut at the North Sea mouth near Katwijk. Even though the Lek river some 60 kilometer upstream had become the main Rhine water drainage channel, the populated area along Oude Rijn, from Utrecht to Leiden, suffered from flooding because the river water couldn't flow properly into the sea anymore. To deal with this problem, the local nobility of Leiden decided to build a dam at Zwadenburg, now Zwammerdam, close to the border with the German Kingdom. This moved the problem upstream the Rhine and people living there, did complain to their king, Frederick I Barbarossa. In 1165, he decided in favor of Utrecht and the dam had to be improved with a sluice, so at low tide water could be drained out of the upstream area towards the sea. Meanwhile, around Leiden digging work had started to increase the draining efficiency of the small rivers called the "Zyl" and "Does", which would carry the overflow towards the Haarlem Lake and the Kagerplassen. This ambitious project was the result of 15 neighborhoods working together towards a common goal. By 1255, according to the oldest dated document in the Rijnland archives, there was a collaborating group of officials called heemraden who oversaw the dikes along the IJ river at Amsterdam and in the Rhine at Zwammerdam. Their privileges were described in this document that was given to the dike warden of the area between Wassenaar, the Zwammerdam, and Spaarndam. At that time Rijnland was one of the many water districts within the area. Each district had a bailiff, and it was the bailiff who was put in charge of dike maintenance. The term Dijkgraaf (official) began to be used around 1400, when the water district borders differed greatly from the borders of the nearby municipalities.The success of the Zijl and Does river