FIGHTING DESERT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1933, Page 7

FIGHTING DESERT

WATER IN SOUTH AFRICA. SCHEME FOR MAKING DAMS. Capetown, June 20. The new Government in Soutn Africa has declared war on the creeping desert, with the object of making agGculture in the country safe for all time fronr siccation, General Smuts is its spokesman. “We shall have to go over to a scheme of making dams on an unprecedented scale,” he said, “not dam s like the Hartebeespoort and others, but small ones. We must enable' every farmer to build a dam, where it is at ah possible. We help the farmers to fence their .farms and we must now help them to build dams so a<3 to preserve every drop of water in the country. “We must dam up every kloof and spruit to have this country from becoming a desert. Your salvation lies on your farms. If we can keep our farmers by doing this we place agriculture on a sound basis.” Constructive measures of this kind will be welcomed by the farmers,. foa the water problem i e the most serious they have to face. The fear of drought is eve r present. Hundreds of springs throughout the country on which the farmers have relied are drying up a.nd their windmills are practically useless. A wide system of small dams would meet a very urgent need oven if it did not permanently solve the problem, and would give respite while the position ot agriculture was. consolidated beh 111(1 them.