A production process for production of water absorbing polymer particles, including drying an aqueous polymer gel in a belt drier with a conveyor belt having a drier setup in the interior, in which drying air in the interior of the drier setup is conducted in countercurrent counter to the conveying direction and the interior of the drier setup is kept substantially at a reduced pressure relative to the ambient pressure outside the drier setup, and the interior has and/or forms a pressure zone, and is especially divided into a number of pressure zones.