B.C. politicians debate reflooding Sumas Prairie

The floods of 2021 devastated the Fraser Valley, and now scientists at the University of British Columbia have come up with a controversial solution. They say that by relocating residents and farms, this area can be turned back into Lake Sumatra.

According to this report, climate modeling shows that Sumatra's water mass will continue to be exposed to large floods.

"This lake wants to come back, and restoring it is a simple task," said Tara Martin, lead author of the report. "But moving infrastructure and people is a much more difficult task."

Lake Sumatra was a shallow freshwater lake before the British Columbia government drained it in the 1920s. By drying up this lake, agricultural land was created for the immigrants and the early Sumatran society was also displaced.

Ms. Martin, who is from the Faculty of Forestry and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia, says that due to the impending floods, it is economically more cost-effective to re-water this area than to rebuild the dams to contain the incoming water.

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