Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

UNDER SLUICES OF THE JHELUM WEIR, WITH NEEDLE DAMS DOWN. THE GREAT IRRIGATION WORKS OF INDIA. BY AN INDIAN IRRIGATION ENGINEER. IN an address delivered on November 5, 1901,- the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers said: “In England the great irrigation works of India are seldom heard of, and I cannot but think that the magnitude of some of them ... is but little appreciated even by many members of our own profession.” It is not an uncommon error to suppose that all crops cultivated in India are irrigated artificially. The truth is that out of the aver- age area—about 226,000,000. acres—of crops sown annually, 13,000,000 acres are irrigated, with great labour, from wells, 18,000,000 from canals, 8,000,000 from tanks, and 6,000,000 in various other ways. It should Government Irrigation Works. be added that of the total nearly 15,000,000 acres are watered by canals constructed en- tirely by the British Government, and one- third of the number by old native canals which have been improved, extended, and maintained by it. These Government works include thirty large, or “ major,” and seventy- three “ minor ” systems, and have an aggre- gate of about 45,000 miles of canals and dis- tributaries. The cost has been heavy—some £30,000,000. Yet the net return averages about seven per cent, on the capital invested, which is satisfactory alike Their Social Effect. to the Government which laid out the money, and to the engineers who carried out the work. Even more satis-