Methods Of Land Reclamation, Reasons And Importance

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Table Of Contents

1. Meaning of land reclamation
2. Reasons for land reclamation
3. Methods of land reclamation
4. Importance of land reclamation
5. Revision Questions.

Meaning Of Land Reclamation

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

Land reclamation is very common in Southern part of Nigeria where there seems to be plenty land especially along coastline. Places where land is common include Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Ajah, Lekki, all in Lagos State, in Port Harcourt (Rivers State), Warri in (Delta state), Calabar in (Cross River State) and uyo in (Akwa ibom state).

Reasons For Land Reclamation

There many reasons why people embark in land reclamation. Some of these reasons are:

1. insufficient land: People embark on land reclamation because of small size of their land. In order to expand the existing land, they therefore embark on land reclamation.
2. Population pressure: As the population increases, the need arises to reclaim existing land that have been occupied by water.
3. For pleasure purposes: People reclaim land to enjoy the cool breeze from the sea.
4. 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.
5. For commercial purposes: Trade and other commercial activities are created when land is reclaimed. This is very common in Lagos State.
6. For industrial purposes: Industrialist do engage themselves in land reclamation in order to site industries in the new area.
7. For socio-cultural purposes: Most cultural and social activities like markets, churches, mosques and trade are cited where land have been reclaimed.

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 area in order to prevent water from entry 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. Embodening: Embodening 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.
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 habitat.

Importance Of Land Reclamation

The benefits of land reclamation are vast, and most importantly reclamation remains a vital part of the future and current welfare of the environment.

The important of land reclamation are as follows:

1. Increase in land area: When certain land is reclaimed, it tends to increase the area for human habitation.
2. Agricultural purposes: Agricultural activities such as swamp rice production is promote where land have been reclaimed.
3. Recreational purposes: Reclaimed land is sometimes used for recreational purposes e.g. national parks for tourist purposes.
4. Purification of water: The water that is left behind after land reclamation tends to be pure for domestic or industrial purposes.
5. Creation of habitat for wildlife: Reclaimed land tends to be used for wildlife purposes in some part of the country.
6. Natural reservation fauna: Water normally is retained after land have been reclaimed in waterlog area. Such water retained do serve from the preservation of fauna (natural food for aquatic animals).
7. Creation for grazing purposes: The reclaimed land is also used for grazing by ruminant animals such as goat, sheep and cattle.
8. Environmental quality: Land reclamation do lead to high quality of the environment as such land is free from water encroachment.

Revision Questions

1. What do you understand by the meaning of land reclamation?
2. Name eight towns in Nigeria where land reclamation is common.
3. List and explain the reasons for land reclamation.
4. List and discuss five methods of land reclamation.
5. Discuss the importance of land reclamation in the country.