CANALS
~Importance of Canals.~--One need have no hesitation in placing among the
greatest achievements of British rule in the Panjáb the magnificent
system of irrigation canals which it has given to the province. Its
great alluvial plain traversed by large rivers drawing an unfailing
supply of water from the Himalayan snows affords an ideal field for the
labours of the canal engineer. The vastness of the arid areas which
without irrigation yield no crops at all or only cheap millets and
pulses makes his works of inestimable benefit to the people and a source
of revenue to the State.
~Canals before annexation.~--In the west of the province we found in
existence small inundation canals dug by the people with some help from
their rulers. These only ran during the monsoon season, when the rivers
were swollen. In 1626 Sháhjahán's Persian engineer, Ali Mardán Khán,
brought to Delhi the water of the canal dug by Firoz Sháh as a monsoon
channel and made perennial by Akbar. But during the paralysis of the
central power in the eighteenth century the channels became silted up.
The same able engineer dug a canal from the Ráví near Mádhopur to water
the royal gardens at Lahore. What remained of this work at annexation
was known as the Haslí.
~Extent of Canal Irrigation.~--In 1911-12, when the deficiency of the
rainfall made the demand for water keen, the canals of the Panjáb and
the N.W.F. Province irrigated 8-1/2 millions of acres. The figures are:
_Panjáb_
A. Permanent Canals Acres Interest earned %
1. Western Jamna 775,450 7-3/4
2. Sirhind 1,609,458 8
3. Upper Bárí Doáb 1,156,808 11-1/2
4. Lower Chenáb 2,334,090 34
5. Lower Jhelam 801,649 10-1/3
B. Monsoon Canals 1,654,437
Total 8,331,892
_N.W. Frontier Province_
Acres Interest earned %
Lower Swát River 157,650 9-3/4
Two minor Canals 67,510
Total 225,160
On the Sirhind Canal, on which the demand fluctuates greatly with the
character of the season, the area was twice the normal. The three canals
of the Triple Project will, when fully developed, add 1,871,000 acres to
the irrigated area of the Panjáb, and the Upper Swát Canal will increase
that of the N.W.F. Province by 381,000 acres. The canals will therefore
in a year of drought be able to water over ten millions of acres without
taking account of possible extensions if a second canal should be drawn
from the Sutlej. The money spent from imperial funds on Panjáb canals
has exceeded twelve millions sterling, and no money has ever been better
spent. In, when the area irrigated was a good deal less than in, the
value of the crops raised by the use of canal water was estimated at
about 207 millions of rupees or nearly £14,000,000. It is only possible
to note very briefly the steps by which this remarkable result has been
achieved.
[Illustration: Fig. 45. Map--Older Canals.]
~Western Jamna Canal.~--Soon after the assumption of authority at Delhi in
1803 the question of the old Canal from the Jamna was taken up. The
Delhi Branch was reopened in 1819, and the Hánsí Branch six years later.
In the famine year nearly 400,000 acres were irrigated. For more than
half a century that figure represented the irrigating capacity of the
canal. The English engineers in the main retained the faulty Moghal
alignment, and waterlogging of the worst description developed. The
effect on the health of the people was appalling. After long delay the
canal was remodelled. The result has been most satisfactory in every
way. In the last decade of the nineteenth century the Sirsa Branch and
the Nardak Distributary were added, to carry water to parts of the
Karnál and Hissár districts where any failure of the monsoon resulted in
widespread loss of crops. If a scheme to increase the supply can be
carried out, further extension in tracts now very liable to famine will
become possible. In the six years ending the interest earned exceeded 8
p.c.
~Upper Bárí Doáb Canal.~--The headworks of the Upper Bárí Doáb Canal are
above Mádhopur near the point where the Ráví leaves the hills. The work
was started soon after annexation, but only finished in 1859. Irrigation
has grown from 90,000 acres in to 533,000 in, 861,000 in 1900-1, and
1,157,000 in. The later history of the canal consists mainly of great
extensions in the arid Lahore district, and the irrigation there is now
three-fifths of the whole. In parts of Amritsar, and markedly near the
city, waterlogging has become a grave evil, but remedial measures have
now been undertaken. The interest earned on the capital expenditure in
the six years ending averaged 11-1/2 p.c.
~Sirhind Canal.~--A quarter of a century passed after the Upper Bárí Doáb
Canal began working before the water of the Sutlej was used for
irrigation. The Sirhind Canal weir is at Rupar where the river emerges
from the Siwáliks. Patiála, Jínd, and Nábha contributed to the cost, and
own three of the five branches. But the two British branches are
entitled to nearly two-thirds of the water, which is utilized in the
Ludhiána and Ferozepore districts and in the Farídkot State. The soil of
the tract commanded is for the most part a light sandy loam, and in
years of good rainfall it repays dry cultivation. The result is that the
area watered fluctuates largely. But in the six years ending the
interest earned averaged 7 p.c., and the power of expansion in a bad
year is a great boon to the peasantry.
~Canal extensions in Western Panjáb.~--In the last quarter of a century
the chief task of the Canal Department in the Panjáb has been the
extension of irrigation to the Rechna and Jech Doábs and the lower part
of the Bárí Doáb. All three contained large areas of waste belonging to
the State, mostly good soil, but incapable of cultivation owing to the
scanty rainfall. Colonization has therefore been an important part of
all the later canal projects. The operations have embraced the
excavation of five canals.
~Lower Chenáb Canal.~--The Lower Chenáb Canal is one of the greatest
irrigation works in the world, the area commanded being 3-1/3 million
acres, the average discharge four or five times that of the Thames at
Teddington, and the average irrigated area 2-1/4 million acres. There
are three main branches, the Rakh, the Jhang, and the Gugera. The supply
is secured by a great weir built across the Chenáb river at Khánkí in
the Gujránwála district, and the irrigation is chiefly in the
Gujránwála, Lyallpur, and Jhang districts. In the four years ending the
average interest earned was 28 p.c., and in future the rate should
rarely fall below 30 p.c. The capital expenditure has been a little over
£2,000,000. The interest charges were cleared about five years after the
starting of irrigation, and the capital has already been repaid to the
State twice over.
[Illustration: Fig. 46. Map--Canals.]
~Lower Jhelam Canal.~--The Lower Jhelam Canal, which waters the tract
between the Jhelam and Chenáb in the Sháhpur and Jhang districts, is a
smaller and less profitable work. The culturable commanded area is about
one million acres. The head-works are at Rasúl in the Gujrát district.
Irrigation began in 1901. In the four years ending 1911-12 the average
area watered was 748,000 acres and the interest earned exceeded 10 p.c.
~Triple Project--Upper Jhelam and Upper Chenáb Canals and Lower Bárí Doáb
Canal.~--The Lower Chenáb Canal takes the whole available supply of the
Chenáb river. But it does not command a large area in the Rechna Doáb
lying in the west of Gujránwála, in which rain cultivation is very risky
and well cultivation is costly. No help can be got from the Ráví, as the
Upper Bárí Doáb Canal exhausts its supply. Desirable as the extension of
irrigation in the areas mentioned above is, the problem of supplying it
might well have seemed insuperable. The bold scheme known as the Triple
Project which embraces the construction of the Upper Jhelam, Upper
Chenáb, and Lower Bárí Doáb Canals, is based on the belief that the
Jhelam river has even in the cold weather water to spare after feeding
the Lower Jhelam Canal. The true _raison d'être_ of the Upper Jhelam
Canal, whose head-works are at Mangla in Kashmír a little north of the
Gujrát district, is to throw a large volume of water into the Chenáb at
Khánkí, where the Lower Chenáb Canal takes off, and so set free an equal
supply to be taken out of the Chenáb higher up at Merála in Siálkot,
where are the head-works of the Upper Chenáb Canal. But the Upper Jhelam
Canal will also water annually some 345,000 acres in Gujrát and Sháhpur.
The Upper Chenáb Canal will irrigate 648,000 acres mostly in Gujránwála,
and will be carried across the Ráví by an aqueduct at Balloke in the
south of Lahore. Henceforth the canal is known as the Lower Bárí Doáb,
which will water 882,000 acres, mostly owned by the State, in the
Montgomery and Multán districts. On the other two canals the area of
Government land is not large. The Triple Project is approaching
completion, and irrigation from the Upper Chenáb Canal has begun. The
engineering difficulties have been great, and the forecast does not
promise such large gains as even the Lower Jhelam Canal. But a return of
7-1/2 p.c. is expected.
~Monsoon or Inundation Canals.~--The numerous monsoon or inundation
canals, which take off from the Indus, Jhelam, Chenáb, Ráví, and Sutlej,
though individually petty works, perform an important office in the
thirsty south-western districts. By their aid a _kharíf_ crop can be
raised without working the wells in the hot weather, and with luck the
fallow can be well soaked in autumn, and put under wheat and other
spring crops. For the maturing of these crops a prudent cultivator
should not trust to the scanty cold weather rainfall, but should
irrigate them from a well. The Sidhnai has a weir, but may be included
in this class, for there is no assured supply at its head in the Ráví in
the winter. In 1910-11 the inundation canals managed by the State
watered 1,800,000 acres. There are a number of private canals in
Ferozepore, Sháhpur, and the hill district of Kángra. In Ferozepore the
district authorities take a share in the management.
~Colonization of Canal Lands.~--The colonization of huge areas of State
lands has been an important part of new canal schemes in the west of the
Panjáb. When the Lower Chenáb Canal was started the population of the
vast Bár tract which it commands consisted of a few nomad cattle owners
and cattle thieves. It was a point of honour to combine the two
professions. Large bodies of colonists were brought from the crowded
districts of the central Panjáb. The allotments to peasants usually
consisted of 55 acres, a big holding for a man who possibly owned only
four or five acres in his native district. There were larger allotments
known as yeoman and capitalist grants, but the peasants are the only
class who have turned out quite satisfactory farmers. Colonization began
in 1892 and was practically complete by 1904, when over 1,800,000 acres
had been allotted. To save the peasants from the evils which an
unrestricted right of transfer was then bringing on the heads of many
small farmers in the Panjáb it was decided only to give them permanent
inalienable tenant right. The Panjáb Alienation of Land Act, No. XIII of
1900, has supplied a remedy generally applicable, and the peasant
grantees are now being allowed to acquire ownership on very easy terms.
The greater part of the colony is in the new Lyallpur district, which
had in 1911 a population of 857,511 souls.
On the Lower Jhelam Canal the area of colonized land exceeds 400,000
acres. A feature of colonization on that canal is that half the area is
held on condition of keeping up one or more brood mares, the object
being to secure a good class of remounts. Succession to these grants is
governed by primogeniture. On the Lower Bárí Doáb Canal a very large
area is now being colonized.
~Canals of the N.W.F. Province.~--Hemmed in as the N.W.F. Province is
between the Indus and the Hills, its canals are insignificant as
compared with the great irrigation works of the Panjáb. The only ones of
any importance are in the Pesháwar Valley. These draw their supplies
from the Kábul, Bára, and Swát rivers, but the works supplied by the
first two streams only command small areas. The Lower Swát Canal was
begun in 1876, but the tribesmen were hostile and the diggers had to
sleep in fortified enclosures. The work was not opened till 1885. A reef
in the river has made it possible to dispense with a permanent weir. The
country is not an ideal one for irrigation, being much cut up by
ravines. But a large area has been brought under command, and the
irrigation has more than once exceeded 170,000 acres. In 1911-12 it was
157,650 acres, and the interest earned was 9-3/4 p.c. The Upper Swát
Canal, which was opened in April 1914, was a more ambitious project,
involving the tunnelling at the Málakand of 11,000 feet of solid rock.
The commanded area is nearly 450,000 acres, including 40,000 beyond our
administrative frontier. The estimated cost is Rs. 18,240,000 or over
£1,200,000 and the annual irrigation expected is 381,562 acres.
[Illustration:
{ Kábul River Canal.
Areas commanded by { L. Swát Canal.
{ U. Swát Canal.
Fig. 47. Map of Canals of Pesháwar district.]