in the years 1973-1978 a series of new pumping stations was established that could serve the canals “upstream” from the rivers rhine and ruhr and discharge “downstream” in case the lippe has enough water to supply with. parallel pumping systems had been developed along the rhine-herne canal and the wesel-datteln canal/ datteln-hamm canal, all controlled and supervised from a centralized telecontrol station.