98
7716 Last Resource
fresh water. In the Netherlands the Barrier Dam, which is twenty
miles long, has forced the North Sea to retreat fty miles and has
shortened the coastline by nearly two hundred miles. Behind its
massive walls the Zuyder Zee has become a fresh—water lake, the
ljselmeer, and over half a million acres of new land have been
reclaimed. After the disaster of 1953, when the sea broke through
the Dutch defences and inundated a considerable area of their land,
the Dutch authorities drew up a new project to give them more
control over the sea. Called the Delta Project the scheme involves
damming off four major sea arms and three rivers, the Rhine, Meuse
and Scheldt. It is scheduled for completion in the early 1980s. Their
ambitious system of dams and dykes will prevent the incursion of
salt water into canals and drainage channels, and will provide further
reservoirs like the ljselmeer as well as valuable reclaimed land. ln
Britain, barrages have been suggested for Morecambe Bay, the
Wash and the Solway Firth. The construction of barrages across
suitable hays and estuaries may well provide cheap sites for large
reservoirs as the cost of land—based ones becomes prohibitively
high. These reservoirs need not be conned to containing fresh water
owing from the land; they could be kept full by large desalting
installations working continually at maximum efciency. Unlike the
great river dams where the annual ow of water if uncertain, these
shoreside reservoirs could be designed to hold a specic output of
water from the plant.
But there is more to water engineering than nding and containing
the supply. These days water supply engineers also talk about
conservation and re—use. Many people argue that if less water were
wasted there would be no need to worry about supplies for many
years to come. The problem is to persuade people who have become
accustomed to cheap water to have more respect for this vital raw
material. One way of doing this is to meter supplies and charge
more for them. A survey of 136 American towns and cities with
populations exceeding 25,000 gave illuminating results in this
respect. Where 10 per cent of the supplies were monitored the daily
consumption per person was 650 litres compared with 265 litres in
areas where 50 per
cent or more houses had metered supplies. In
Gibraltar, the inhabitants pay a realistic price—about ten times that
in Britain—for their metered water although they receive piped
sea—water for such things as water closets and washing free of charge.
There is no doubt that when realistic prices are charged for water,
7716 Last Resource
fresh water. In the Netherlands the Barrier Dam, which is twenty
miles long, has forced the North Sea to retreat fty miles and has
shortened the coastline by nearly two hundred miles. Behind its
massive walls the Zuyder Zee has become a fresh—water lake, the
ljselmeer, and over half a million acres of new land have been
reclaimed. After the disaster of 1953, when the sea broke through
the Dutch defences and inundated a considerable area of their land,
the Dutch authorities drew up a new project to give them more
control over the sea. Called the Delta Project the scheme involves
damming off four major sea arms and three rivers, the Rhine, Meuse
and Scheldt. It is scheduled for completion in the early 1980s. Their
ambitious system of dams and dykes will prevent the incursion of
salt water into canals and drainage channels, and will provide further
reservoirs like the ljselmeer as well as valuable reclaimed land. ln
Britain, barrages have been suggested for Morecambe Bay, the
Wash and the Solway Firth. The construction of barrages across
suitable hays and estuaries may well provide cheap sites for large
reservoirs as the cost of land—based ones becomes prohibitively
high. These reservoirs need not be conned to containing fresh water
owing from the land; they could be kept full by large desalting
installations working continually at maximum efciency. Unlike the
great river dams where the annual ow of water if uncertain, these
shoreside reservoirs could be designed to hold a specic output of
water from the plant.
But there is more to water engineering than nding and containing
the supply. These days water supply engineers also talk about
conservation and re—use. Many people argue that if less water were
wasted there would be no need to worry about supplies for many
years to come. The problem is to persuade people who have become
accustomed to cheap water to have more respect for this vital raw
material. One way of doing this is to meter supplies and charge
more for them. A survey of 136 American towns and cities with
populations exceeding 25,000 gave illuminating results in this
respect. Where 10 per cent of the supplies were monitored the daily
consumption per person was 650 litres compared with 265 litres in
areas where 50 per
cent or more houses had metered supplies. In
Gibraltar, the inhabitants pay a realistic price—about ten times that
in Britain—for their metered water although they receive piped
sea—water for such things as water closets and washing free of charge.
There is no doubt that when realistic prices are charged for water,