VANISHED LAKES

Evening Star, Issue 21504, 31 August 1933, Page 12

VANISHED LAKES

AH AFRICAN MYSTERY 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 ? This 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 the schemes for making the desert blossom. David Livingstone discovered Ngami in 1849. “Wo 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,” ho wrote. Livingstone had nearly died of 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. Donald Bain, South African hunter and desert guide, said that he once motored across Ngami in a cloud of dust. Only at rare intervals does the water of the Okavango River fill a portion of the former lake. “ The lake dried up and the dead fish and animals were devoured by the vultures,” say the Bushmen. It is still possible, however, t 8 obtain water by digging below the surface. The territory years ago became a refuge for oppressed and conquered tribes —Daraaras 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 by scientists the problem of the disappearance of the lakes was carefully studied. Ngami lies 2,000 ft above sea level, and all agreed that the lake dried up owing to the choking of the feeder rivers by sand and grass. LAKE OF 50,000 SQUARE MILES. It is thought that the great Zambesi River once ted Ngami, for the old area of the lake was 50,000 square miles. Scientists have tracqd the faint course of a river loading out of Npami 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 tho 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 scientists. The late Professor F. H. L. Schwarz, of Grahamstown, originated tho theory and worked out a practical scheme to put his stupendous idea'into effect. If it is ever carried out it will be the greatest irrigation scheme the world has ever known. 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,' 1 said Professor Schwartz. " Take warning from the ruined cities of North Africa—Greek and Roman cities that floundered and died for lack of water. Dam up the pirate rivers and restore the old conditions.” For years Schwarz cried alone in the wilderness. Then at intervals Parliament discussed his scheme. In 1926 a reconnaissance expedition was sent out to explore the possibilities—engineers and scientists in motor cars and Colonel Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld, of the South African Air Force, with a squadron of aeroplanes. The only important discovery was made by the airmen, whoso photographs proved that the Kunene River once flowed into the Etosha Pan. This had been one of the strongest points in the Schwarz theory. The Kunene to-day forms the border between Southwest Africa and Angola. Instead of supplying the interior it rushes swiftly to the sea, races through deep gorges with its stolen waters. To-day the Etosha Pan, like Ngami, is a waterless sea. Seventy miles long and fifty miles broad, it shines blue and white under the sun. It is covered with salt, which draws huge herds of game of every species. Etosha, Ngami, Makarikari are these the key to the future prosperity of South Africa? One day, perhaps, public opinion will turn in favour of trying the gigantic experiment. It will cost millions, but it may make more millions.