CENTURY-OLD DREAM

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 85, 4 January 1930, Page 6

CENTURY-OLD DREAM

MAKING ENGLAND BIGGER RECLAIMING THE EAST COAST A dream that has been nursed by various people for about a century may come true in England at last, if the reclamation of the Wash is undertaken as one of the measures for relieving unemployment, and, at the same time, increasing the wealth of the country. The scheme was first outliued 90 years ago by Sir John Bennie, the famous engineer. He proposed joining the four rivers emptying into the Wash—the Dime, Nene, Welland and Witham—into oue; at the same -time building an embankment across the Wash from the Norfolk coast near Hunstanton to Gibraltar Point, in Lincolnshire. This embankment would be pierced at a suitable point by an outlet, through fivhieh the combined Ouse-Nene-Welland-Witham would discharge its waters into the North Sea. It was estimated when the scheme was put forward that the value of the land recovered would be sufficient to make the work profitable, but the cost seemed so great that no one was willing to take the risks.

Now, however, the situation is rather different. Though costs of all kinds are higher than they were in 1839, it is easier to raise capital for a scheme of this kind. If the Government guaranteed interest, there should be no difficulty on that score.

Also, the need for action of some kind is now more urgent. Some of the most fertile agricultural land in the country is situated round the Wash, and this land is endangered by the fact that the old system of drainage is proving insufficient to prevent periodic flooding. _ The position is, therefore, that a fairly big expenditure is necessary in any case, and that there is a great deal to be said for tackling drainage, not as an isolated problem, but as part of a general scheme, which would include the reclamation of the Wash.

There is another reason why the scheme is more practicable now than it was in 1839. Since then a much smaller country—Holland—has embarked upon a project still more ambitious, the reclamation of the Zuyder Zee. The first part of this work has now been carried out with the enclosure of about 50,000 acres of submerged land, which has just been completed. This is only a “preliminary canter,” but enough has been done to show that the whole scheme, which will involve the salvage of 555,000 acres, is going to be successful. With I his example in front of them, and with the benefit of the experience gained in the Zuyder Zee, there is no doubt that British engineers can tackle the reclamation of the Wash. In a scheme of this kind the building of the embankments necessary is, of course, only one stage, though a vital one. After the area to be reclaimed has been shut off from the sea in this way the water has to be primped out and the land drained. Even then it will not be ready for agricultural purposes. After being under the

sea so long it will contain a great deal of saline, which must be eliminated, and some years will have to elapse before it can be made productive. The Dutch, however, say they are convinced that the £40,000,000 which they expect to spend on reclaiming the Zuyder Zee will yield them a handsome profit, and there seems no reason why the reclamation of the Wash should not be a profitable enterprise also.