There Is Unfortunately A Serious Drawback In The Extreme Unhealthiness
Of This Otherwise Invaluable Situation, Famagousta, Which Would At
Present Render It Unfit For A Military Station.
There are several
causes, all of which must be removed, before the necessary sanitary
change can be accomplished.
The vast heaps of stones, all of which are
of an extremely porous nature, have absorbed the accumulated filth of
ages, and the large area now occupied by these ruins must be a fertile
source of noxious exhalations. During the rainy season the surface
water, carrying with it every impurity, furnishes a fresh supply of
poison to be stored beneath these health-destroying masses, which cannot
possibly be cleansed otherwise than by their complete obliteration. It
may be readily understood that the high ramparts of the walls to a
certain extent prevent a due circulation of air, which increases the
danger of miasma from the ruin-covered and reeking area of the old
Venetian city. Should the harbour works be commenced, all this now
useless and dangerous material will be available for constructing the
blocks of concrete required for the sea-wall, and the surface of the
town will be entirely freed from the present nuisance without additional
expense. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 96 of 274
Words from 49622 to 50137
of 143016
