The Few Modern Buildings Should Be Compulsorily Purchased By
The Government, And Entirely Swept Away, So That The Area Inclosed By
The Fortification Walls Should Represent A Perfectly Clean Succession Of
Levels In The Form Of Broad Terraces, Which Would Drain Uniformly
Towards The Sea.
Upon these purified and well-drained plateaux the new
town could be erected, upon a special plan suitable to the locality, and
in harmony with the military requirements of a fortified position.
The
value of the land thus recovered from the existing ruin would be
considerable, and, if let on building leases, would repay the expense of
levelling, draining, and arranging for occupation. In this manner one of
the prime causes of the present unhealthiness would be removed; by the
same operation, the ditch of the citadel would be pumped dry, and all
communication shut off from the sea, which now produces a stagnant and
offensive pool, breeding only reeds, mosquitoes, and malaria.
We now arrive at the most formidable origin of the Famagousta fever--the
marshes caused by the overflow of the Pedias river. The description that
I have already given of the delta formed by the deposit of mud during
inundations, and the total absence of any exit for the waters by a
natural channel, will convey to the minds of the most inexperienced an
extreme cause of danger. I can see only one practicable method of
surmounting this great difficulty. The Pedias river must be conducted to
the sea through an artificial channel, and it must (like the Rhone) be
confined between raised banks of sufficient height to prevent any chance
of overflow, and of a width arranged to produce a rapid current, that
will scour the bed and carry the mud to deposit far beyond the shore.
This work would be expensive, but, on the other hand, the collateral
advantages would be great.
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