C L 4 UL 1 7 7 (_h\. lo:\ 



Colmatage for salt lands, unless in exceptional cases, is 

 not to be recommended. If the 5000 feddans now under 

 consideration were treated by colmatage there would be 

 the kism and hod work to divide it into 500-feddan plots 

 but the earthwork would have to be much heavier and 

 large banks would be made as considerable waves can rise 

 in 500-feddan areas. The cost would be at least 50 P.T. 

 per feddan. Assuming abundant water, the time to 

 sweeten the land would be much longer than by filtration 

 washing. When the land did become sweet, the hoshay 

 work would then have to be done to ensure keeping down 

 the salt and also to divide the hods into suitable areas for 

 irrigation and cultivation. If the colmatage was of any 

 use, a great crop of reeds and weeds should be on the 

 land requiring at least two extra ploughings. As for silt 

 brought to the land, it can only be distributed by canals, 

 and with one opening into a 500-feddan block there is no 

 current to carry the silt any distance. Mere discoloration 

 of water does not indicate much silt, and it will be found 

 that away from inlet and outlet currents, the water is 

 standing green and almost motionless. 



Colmatage takes more time and more water, and in the 

 end as much, if not more, expenditure than filtration 

 washing. Where old heavy banks exist, and there are 

 large silt-carrying canals with water which would otherwise 

 be wasted into the lakes, colmatage may be carried out on 

 lands which would otherwise lie waste. If continued many 

 years the reeds give place to grass, coarse but fit for 

 pasturage, and ultimately such lands will come into culti- 

 vation. As a method of reclamation, however, it cannot 



