INVASION OF SAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

INVASION OF SAND.

TOWN SAVED BY LINEN. A huge screen of linen around a town was a remarkable method adopted in a fight to save the seaside resort of Guardamar, on the Alicanto coast of Spain, from burial beneath sand dunes. There are vast dunes oil this const, and for years sand lias been blown inland, until at the beginning of tlio century half the town of Gunrdamar 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 tho coast-lino in front of the town. The sand between the barricade and the town was gradually removed, and there appeared a flourishing park in place of a wilderness. In 25 years a stretch of barren sandy land has"been transformed into forests_ of pine, olive, and other trees. Five miles of roads have been built, the town cleared of tha pand, and onco again local growers of figs and olives are prospering,