The Markiezaatskade, a four-kilometer-long auxiliary dam that frames the Marquisate of Bergen op Zoom, runs between Zuid-Beveland (east of the Kreekraksluizen ) to the Molenplaat in front of Bergen op Zoom. As one of the compartmentalization works, it had two functions; facilitating the closure of the Oesterdam and preventing excessive flow velocities on the Scheldt-Rhine connection . Construction of the dam took two years and was completed on March 20, 1983. The dam consists from north to south of a low dam section of 1,900 meters long, a stone closing quay of 800 meters, a low dam section of 400 meters, a 1,100 meter long high dam section west of the Molenplaat and a connecting dam with the south side of the Molenplaat .

The Markiezaatsmeer was created behind the quay. In 1530, after the St. Elizabeth flood , this area was named ‘Drowned land of the Marquisate of Bergen op Zoom’. For a long time it was a tidal area where the waters of the North Sea and the Scheldt met. After the Kreekrak was closed in 1868, the Markiezaat was part of the Eastern Scheldt . The construction of the Oesterdam and a dike to the east of the Scheldt-Rhine connection created a lake that had become fresh after a few years. According to the World Wildlife Fund, this reservoir is ideally suited for development into a sustainable nature reserve. The Markiezaat is after the Waddenzee and the IJsselmeerthe largest wetland area in the Netherlands, with hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that perch there.

Because many water sports enthusiasts visit the area and because the freshwater buffer that arose behind the dam plays a major role in the water supply of the area, it is very important that the fresh water in the lake is of good quality. In dry periods, the stock can be used and in wet periods it serves as a collection basin for excess surface water from the western part of Noord-Brabant. The ingenious system of the locks can separate salt and fresh water from each other, but cannot prevent small amounts of salt water from ending up in the Volkerak and the Zoommeer, via the Kreekraksluizen and the Krammer locks into the Philipsdam . To be able to pump away the salt or polluted water, there are at Batha drainage channel and a drainage sluice towards the Western Scheldt.