DKFORKSTATIOX AND FLOODS IX XORTHKRX ClIIXA 895 



readers had seen the flow of the Hai Ho, he could not have helped 

 comparing it to the flow of licjuid mud. Since the Hai Ho cannot dis- 

 charge such an influx of heavily laden water, the only alternative will 

 be for the water to break through the embankments and overflow the 

 surrounding country ; hence we hear of 5,61 1,759 people rendered home- 

 less and 17,646 villages partly or wholly under w^ater. 



It is obvious, therefore, that provision must be made for adequate 

 outlet to the sea for the five streams, and until this is done inunda- 

 tions are bound to occur regularly every year. 



But, granting that a more adequate outlet to the sea has been efl'ected — 

 which we know is a prodigious engineering task — are we going to 

 consider the problem of flood in Chihli as solved? What about the 

 silt problem? Can it be taken care of permanently by barrages, reser- 

 voirs, weirs, dikes, outlets, and other engineering works? Will not 

 the reservoirs, outlets, etc., be silted up again after a few years of 

 usefulness, just as the different streams have been silted up? Have 

 we not heard that at some places the bed of the Yvmg-ting Ho is 

 20 feet higher than the adjacent country? AX'hat about the torrential 

 run-off? Can it be permanently checked, harnessed, and conserved for 

 commerce and navigation and for the use of millions of agricultural 

 people who have year after year suffered from either drought or 

 famine? One could go on and ask countless questions of such char- 

 acter, but suffice it to say that though engineering works are all neces- 

 sary remedial measures, they are not sufficient by themselves, and 

 unless they are supplemented by reforestation at the sources of the 

 (liff'crenl rivers their effect can only be temporary. 



The i)roblem of flood in Chihli, therefore, is fundamentally a forest 

 problem. A systematic program of reforestation will have to be carried 

 out before the problem of silt, the problem of unrestrained run-off of 

 rainfall, and the j^roblem o\ reservoirs, ot' dikes and lUitU'ts. I'an b(.' 

 permanently solved. 



It must be remembered, however, tiiat China is not the only country 

 where floods occur. History has shown that all countries have ex]>eri- 

 enced floods. In fact, floods have always played the role of a sounding; 

 bell to nations that have not paid enough attention to the proper hand- 

 ling of forest lands or lands that are not fit for agriculture. The crea- 

 tion of "protection forests" in different European countries was but 

 the result of an effort put forth by people who sutYered from floods 

 and who wanted to stop their recurrence. France has perhaps fur- 

 nished the best example, showing where reforestation has been under- 

 taken on a large scale to reclaim waste lands in order to regulate stream* 



