SOUTH AFRICA'S LOST LAKES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 26

SOUTH AFRICA'S LOST LAKES

Once there'was an inland sea called Ngami in the Kalahari Desert. To the east of it stretched an enormous lake known to the natives as Makarikari; and to the west another lake, the Etosha Pan. . '

Within living memory these three great sheets of water have vanished. Can they be restored, and thus throw open an area for cultivation in which, according to expert opinion, 3,000,000 white people could.settle? asks a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor."

That is the riddle of .the lost lakes. In hard times, when farmers complain that the land is drying up, people in South Africa turn again and again to Ihe schemes for making the desert blossom. '....''.

David Livingstone discovered Ngami in 1849. "We could detect no horizon where we stood . . . nor could we form any idea of the extent of the lake except from the reports of the inhabitants of the district," he wrote. Livingstone had suffered intensely from thirst during his famous journey across the desert to "this fine-looking sheet of water." Had he known it, he was -the first and also the last white man to see Lake Ngami in all its glory.

Later travellers found a mere grass depression in the desert containing muddy pools. It is still possible, however, to obtain water by digging below the surface, ' and there is good grazing for cattle in the area.

The territory, years ago, became a refuge for oppressed and conquered tribes—Damaras and Hottentots who had fled from the Germans in the west; bushmen, and the remnants of the Mambukushu,;who had been raided by Arab slavers . for centuries. The country in which Ngami lies is larger than France, and the desert surrounding .the old lake supplied ample protection. Once • the possibilities of the Kalahari were realised, the problem of the disappearance of the lakes was carefully studied. .Ngami lies 2000 feet above sea level, and all agreed that the lake dried up owing to the .choking of the feeder rivers by sand and grass. •: It as believed that the great Zambesi once fed Ngami; for the old area

of the lake was SCOOO square miles. Geologists have traced the faint course of a river leading out of Ngami in a southerly direction and joining the mighty Orange River far away in the Union of- South Africa. That is the link between the "lost lakes" and the present dry climate, of South Africa. "Restore the lakes and make a garden of the Kalahari and a large part of South Africa," declares a group of distinguished experts.' The late Professor iE. H. L. Schwartz, of Grahamstown, originated the theory, and worked out a practical scheme to put his stupendous idea into effect. By damming certain rivers in the north, Professor Schwartz proposed turning them into their old channels so that the lakes would be filled. This would moisten the hot atmosphere of the desert and precipitate rain over a huge area.' „ "South Africa is becoming a Sahara, said Professor Schwartz. "Take warning from the ruined cities of North Africa—Greek and Roman cities that nourished and died for lack of water. Dam up the pirate riveft and restore the old conditions." At intervals, Parliament discussed his scheme. In 1926 a reconnaissance expedition was sent out to explore the possibilities—engineers and natural scientists m motorcars and Colonel Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld, of the South African Air Force, with a squadron of aeroplanes. The airmen's photographs proved that the Kunene River once flowed into the Etosha Pan. This had been one of the strongest points in the Schwartz theory. The Kunene • todayforms the border between South-west Africa, and Angalo. Instead of supplying the interior, it rushes swiftly to the sea—races through deep gorges with its stolen waters. _ Today the Etosha Pan, like Ngami. is a waterless sea. Seventy miles long and 50 miles broad, the Etosha Pan shines blue and white under the sun. It is covered with salt. . Etosha. Ngami, Makarikari—are these the key to the future prosperity of South Africa? One day, I think, public opinion will turn in favour of trying fhe gigantic experiment.