Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1910 — IRRIGATION IN INDIA [ARTICLE]

IRRIGATION IN INDIA

English Government Is Redeeming Many Acres of Dry Powerful Recommendation of Irrigation Commission and Courageous Energy of Lord Curzon Needed for Ultimate Success. London.—The Times of India gives some interesting facts regarding the work done by the Indian government In extending the irrigation system of the land. Of the Deccan system, it says: “The Deccan schemes are of firstclass importance and value. They make a vivid appeal to our imagination and sympathy. If we 'look at a rainfall map of India we see a large parched patch of country enveloping and Bijapur and parts of Nasik and and Bijapur andparts of Nasik and Poona. Here the laborious cultivator has. learned to look for drought and famine in one year out of three, and in a vastly wider area a scanty and Insufficient rainfall is as likely to be received as a plenteous watering. In the Deccan there is no question of watering a desert and bringing in a colony of people to enjoy the results. The cry for water comes from the people whose native homes are on the soil and who year after year sow their crops uncertain of the return, frequently having to sell their treasures and migrate in search of labor, in order to find the means of subsistence. ■

“The soil is rich and capable of bearing fine crops, and along its whole western border runs the mighty buttress cf the Ghats which brings down an unfailing deluge of water, sufficient to irrigate the land many times over. What more simple than to store water in Jhe hills and deal it out through van'als upon the thirsty plains? Yet the difficulties to be faced are some of the hardest in any irrigation problem in India. The construction of the great storage reservoirs in the (lhats proved extremely costly; ewing to the

conformation of the country, the alignment of canals from the best sites for storage works to the districts requiring water presented complications; and the fluctuations of rainfall in the plains seriously affected prospects of regular revenue. “Government obtains returns for its outlay upon irrigation both directly, by payments made for the water service, and indirectly, by the increased ■wealth, and therefore increased taxable capacity, which it confers on the people. “It needed the powerful recommendation of the irrigation commission and the courageous energy of Lord Curzon to insure the problem which the Doccan presents being boldly attacked and steadily pushed forward to solution. The commission found that at the soil in the Deccan which might beneficially be irrigated, 95 per cent, was without irrigation. In the secretariat of the government of Bombay now lies a new map of the Deccan upon which may be seen the results of the labors of the last seven years. Every catchment area in the Ghats has been investigated, and every possible site for a reservoir examined as the commission desired. “Every square mile of the Deccan has been surveyed, the best alignments for canals in all directions have been sought out. The new map of the Deccan is covered with a maze

of red lines and blue lines, shaded patches, dotted patches, showing the results of these labors. Financially, the engineers are able to show prospects of. better results than were at one time believed possible. Most of their schemes show an estimated revenue of three or four per cent., and for all of these the government of India is now prepared to advance funds. “It is an irony that the best soil in this region is in those parts which are farthest removed from the zones of regular rainfall. In the future this topsy-turvy arrangement of nature will be of no consequence. The dry and thirsty districts of Ahmednagar and its neighbors have a latent capacity for becoming one of the richest wheat-producing tracts in India. When canals have made the country independent of the rainfall, even the Deccan ryot may forget the meaning of drought and the pain of turning his wife’s bangles into rupees every third or fourth year.

"One of the greatest of the new projects is the Godaveri river scheme. This is nearing completion, and several miles of its canals will be brought into use in the coming monsoon. The distributing channels will serve 240,000 acres of ground in Nasik and Ahmednagar. The whole catchment area surrounding the sources of the Godaveri and its upper tributaries, the Darna and Kadwa, is brought under control for the benefit of the scheme. This represents an area of no less than 160 square miles.”