PUMPING AH OCEAN DRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16839, 15 September 1922, Page 7

PUMPING AH OCEAN DRY.

DUTCH ENGINEERS AT AVAR AYiTH NATL* RE. A wonderful engineering feat is being carried out in Holland. It is nothing less than an attempt to reclaim a large portion of the Zuider Zee. AA here at present fishermen sink their nets there will rise villages, pop-lar-bordered roads, and sleepy canals, and new farms and homes for thousand', oi people. Holland ha© always been at war with the sea. Alore than a third of the total area of the kingdom lies below sea-level, and would be flooded were it not for its dykes and sand dunes. Inded, the Zuider Zee itself is a re I suit of the bursting of the dykes. This I happened in the thirteenth century, and. in addition to Holland being cut in two. and Friesland being separated from the rest of the country by a large sheet of water, hundreds of villages were submerged and about £O.OOO per sons were drowned. Dutch engineers arc building a great dam. or embankment, across the nor them end of the sea. from AVieringen. in North Holland, to Piaam, in Friesland. It. will have a length of about fifteen miles, and will carry a Moubleline railway and road for ordinary traffic. thus affording a more easy access between North Holland and Friesland. Communication with the North Sea will be maintained by thirty-three large sluice gates and a couple of locks for shipping. Within the embankment four areas, known as the north-western. southwestern, north-eastern and south eastern, are to be drained and reclaimed. It will result in adding 827 square miles, an area almost as largo ’as the county of Cornwall, to Holland. The construction of the embankment alone is expected to occupy nine years, and a sum of £15.000,000 will be expended on the scheme.