THE ZUYDER ZEE

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 272, 19 November 1919, Page 2

THE ZUYDER ZEE

- o* ,— BIG RECLAMATION WORK

Holland has at last begun work on its long-projected plan for reclaiming tho land covered by the Zuyder Zee. This will mark the fulfilment of a D*utch dream of seventy years. The scheme aims at recovering for tillage and pasture about 800 square miles flooded by the sea 700 years ago, with a loss, it is said, of 80,000 lives. The remaining ,500 square miles of channel between the reclaimed portions of land will be turned into a fresh water lake, fed by the River Ijsel, a branch of the Rhino, and protected against the sea by a dyke 183 miles long between the Island of Wieringen and Piaam, on the coast of Friesland.

The -reclaimed land will consist of four "polders" surrounding the lake. They are expected eventually to supply a living to nearly 250,000 persons. The work is to be spread over 20 years, and will cost about twenty millions sterling.

During the last three generations the Dutch have added to their territory by reclamation 200 square miles of land.