LAND RECLAMATION

Week 9

 Class:      SS2   

Topic: Land Reclamation

Specific Objectives: By the end of this lesson the students should be able to;    

1. Explain the concept of land reclamation
2. Describe the various methods for land reclamation
3. Explain the importance of land reclamation

LAND RECLAMATION

Land reclamation is the process of recovery of bad or wasteful land and turning it to a useful or beneficial purpose. In other words, it is a method of turning a waste land into a good land for residential, social, commercial and industrial purposes.

It is very common in the southern parts of Nigeria where there seem to be plenty land especially along the coastline.

Reasons for land reclamation

There are many reasons why people embark on land reclamation. Some of the reasons are:

1. Insufficient land: People embark on land reclamation because of small size of their land. In other to expand the existing land, they therefore embark on land reclamation.
2. Population pressure: As the population increases, the need arises to reclaim existing lands that have been occupied by water.
3. For residential purposes: Due to scarcity of land to build coupled with high cost of accommodation, people embark on land reclamation in order to build houses for residential purposes.
4. For commercial purposes: Trade and other commercial activities are created when land is reclaimed. This is very common in Lagos State
5. For industrial purposes: Industrialists do engage themselves in land reclamation in order to site industries in the new area.

Methods of Land reclamation

There are various methods of land reclamation. These include the following:

1. Afforestation: Afforestation is the process of establishing forest plantations in an area. In Nigeria, it is popularly referred to as tree planting campaign in which seedlings of trees are planted to make the environment suitable for human habitation as well as for farming.
2. Construction of barriers: Barriers are constructed along certain areas in order to prevent water from entering that land. This is done to protect that land from water logging.
3. Sand filling: This involves the dumping of enough soil, rocks etc. to raise the surface of the land above the water level, sea level or lake level.
4. Emboldening: This refers to the walling of an area and removing the water. Emboldening requires years of maintenance to pump out water, designate the soil and otherwise improve it.
5. Construction of drainages: Drainages are deliberately constructed in water logged areas to channel water away so that such land will be available for human habitation.
6. Control of erosion: Erosion have to be controlled in order to prevent the soil from being eroded away. Erosion can cause certain land not to be available for human habitation.

Importance of land reclamation

1. Increase in land area
2. An agricultural activity such as swamp rice production is promoted where land has been reclaimed.
3. The water that is left behind after land reclamation tends to be pure for domestic or industrial purposes
4. Reclaimed land is sometimes used for recreational purposes e.g. national parks for tourist purposes.
5. Reclaimed land tends to be used for wildlife purposes in some parts of the country.
6. Reclaimed land is also used for grazing by ruminant animals such as goat, sheep and cattle.
7. Land reclamation does lead to high quality of the environment as such land is free from water encroachment.