INVASION OF SAND

Evening Star, Issue 20309, 18 October 1929, Page 2

INVASION OF SAND

TOWN SAVED BY LINEN. A huge screen of linen around a. town was a remarkable method adopted in a light to save the seaside resort of Guardamar, on the Alicante coast of Spain, from burial beneath sand dunes. There are vast dunes on this coast, and for years sand has been blown inland, until at the beginning of the century half the town of Guardamar lay partly buried. Houses had been obliterated, and gardens and orchards rendered impossible of cultivation. Promised a loan of £20,000 from the Government, the townspeople determined to fight the invader. A high barricade of stout linen fabric, specially treated, was erected along the coastline in front of the town. The sand between the bardicado and the town was gradually removed, and there appeared a flourishing park in place of a wilderness. In twenty-five years a stretch or barren sandy "land 'has been transformed into forests of pine, olive ,and ptlier trees. Five miles of roads have, been built, tho town cleared of the sand, and once again local. growers of figs and olives are prospering.