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'Seistan. Irrigation report of the Perso-Afghan Arbitration Commission, 1902-1905. Volume I. Report and appendices. Simla: Government of India Foreign Department, 1906' [‎8r] (20/500)

The record is made up of 1 volume (246 folios). It was created in 1906. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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INTRODUCTION.
- 1 - • • ;f ; n< ) J.
In Seist^n, as In Egypt, there is no cultivation without irrigation, both owe
their existence to the fertility brought to an almost rainless tract by the surplus
waters of a far distant catchment, no account of the community living in such
an oasis would be complete without a description of the river on which they are
supported, and the methods by which they obtain and distribute among them
selves the abundance, which nature has provided, in this unique way, in the
midst of an extensive desert. In such a tract irrigation and cultivation are
words that have the same meaning, and since the description of the river and the
community it supports has been given in the “ Revenue Report and Notes ”,
this report is supplementary to that, and deals only with those scientific problems
that we study to discover to what extent, we could, from our experience in India,
increase the irrigational powers of the water. To this end pains have been
bestowed on the catchment area from which the water comes, to the trough
by which it is conveyed to the terminal lake, and on the terminal lake,
or inundated area, as well as on the lands upon which the cultivation is
obtained. Then on the rainfall from which this priceless resource is got and
the evaporation by which so large a part of it is wasted. With this informa
tion, and an intelligent and sympathetic examination of the means by which man
has, through countless ages, put this water to his service, we will be in a position
to conceive howto obtain the more efficient control over the river that the great
advances in practical skill in materials and the useful arts has placed in our
power.
The Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884 made very complete
surveys and descriptions of the mountains drained by all the rivers that end in the
Seistan Lake ; it is hoped that this Mission has perfected this by its surveys of
their troughs and deltas. So that with our experience on the plains of India, and
in the Peshawar valley, we are now able to form a correct estimate of the poten
tial agricultural wealth of the Middle Asian plateau The essential difference
between the rivers of Middle Asia and Asia Minor and those in India is that
the rainfall of the former is all in the winter and spring, while the summer is
dry and cloudless, and in Seistan a period of high wind : evaporation losses are
great; the supply dwindles in the later hottest months to its minimum, and does
not begin to recover till autumn approaches with its shorter, cooler days. The
wealth of the country is, therefore, in the spring crop of wheat and barley, and
the rulers in the past seem never to have tried to control the supply for maturing
large areas of the more valuable autumn crops of cotton and rice, as, judging
from Sir William Willcocks’ reports, they did in Mesopotamia. This valuable
autumn perennial supply is, probably, all derived from the main stream of the
Helmand that drains the Hazarajat; it is conveyed to Seistan in a river that
flows through hot deserts in a long, narrow, deep trough having only a narrow
ribbon of culturable soil along one or other bank ; that water reaches the delta in
such useful volumes during the period of low river is due, probably, to the fact
that the trough is cut in close grained alluvial that is remarkably staunch. The
volume of water that reaches the delta is sufficient for the cultivation of all the
culturable soil therein, provided the duty is improved to that which obtains in
India and Egypt. In Chapter X it is shown that about 750,000 acres of spring
crop and 250,000 acres of autumn crop could be annually cultivated on the
average, if suitable works of control, distribution, and drainage were carried out.
The problems connected with the designing and execution of these works
are fully discussed, and all the information likely to be required is given. No
designs have been made, as this was beyond the scope of our work, which was
to collect information required for the settlement of the water disputes while
doing this the knowledge of the country placed on record in the plans and
sections that accompany this report and in the notes given in the “Revenue
Report and Notes" was obtained : only so much work has since been done, as
was needed to make this information readily available, so that valuable advice
may be given when required, as it is someday sure to be, for the fame of the
skill of the British in irrigation works in India is widely known in these countries,
where water produces more wealth, even than it does in India.
C644FD

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Content

The first volume of reports produced by the Irrigation Officer of the Perso-Afghan Boundary Commission, Seistan [Sīstān], and submitted to the Government of India, Foreign Department.

Contents:

  • 'Chapter I. The catchment area of the Seistan Lake. The trough of the Helmand River below Kala-i-Bist.'
  • 'Chapter II. The delta of the Helmand River.'
  • 'Chapter III. The inundated area.'
  • 'Chapter IV. Canals, ancient and modern.'
  • 'Chapter V. Rainfall in the Helmand basin.'
  • 'Chapter VI. Note on the evaporation from the surface of water in Seistan.'
  • 'Chapter VII. Lines of levels, maps, surveys, etc.'
  • 'Chapter VIII. Discharge observations.'
  • 'Chapter IX. The silt carried in the water of the Helmand River.'
  • 'Chapter X. The volume available for the irrigation of the delta: the duty: the culturable area that could be brought under command.'
  • 'Chapter XI. Probable rates of work if canals are made.'
  • 'Chapter XII. Irrigation works suitable to the circumstances of the people.'
  • 'Chapter XIII. Works required to gain complete control of the river for the irrigation of the delta.'
  • 'Chapter XIV. Probable cost of, and income, and percentage of profit from the irrigation works.'
  • 'Chapter XV. Drainage scheme for the inundated area.'
  • 'Chapter XVI. Schemes for utilising some large depressions either as escape, or impounding reservoirs.'
  • 'Chapter XVII. Impounding reservoirs in the trough of the Helmand: control of the floods by works in the catchment area.'

Appendices:

  • 'Appendix 1. The Hazarajat and the country drained by the Farah Rud and Harud Rud.'
  • 'Appendix 2. The trough of the Helmand River below Kala-i-Bist.'
  • 'Appendix 3. Detailed measurements of depths of water evaporated in Seistan.'
  • 'Appendix 4. Extracts from "The Irrigation of Mesopotamia" by Sir William Willcocks, KCMG.'
  • 'Appendix 5. Comparison of rates at Quetta with these on the Chenab and Jhelum Canals.'
  • 'Appendix 6. Rates of cost and of income on the Punjab Perennial Canals.'
  • 'Appendix 7. The manufacture of lime at the Consulate, Seistan.'
  • 'Appendix 8. Details of the cost of the work on the buildings erected by the Imperial Bank.'
  • 'Appendix 9. Note on lime, bricks and stone for large works in Seistan.'
  • 'Appendix 10. Comparison of rates likely to obtain in Mesopotamia with those in Egypt by Sir William Willcocks, KCMG.'
  • 'Appendix 11. Note by W A Johns, Esq., Railway Reconnaissance Officer, on the cost of excavating in the hard Seistan clay, and driving tunnels or kariz therein.'
  • 'Appendix 12. On the cost of excavation in the culturable soil of the delta and in the hard tough alluvial of the high plateaux or dasht .'
  • 'Appendix 13. The meaning of the words clay and silt .'
  • 'Appendix 14. Dates on which the Sar-i-Shela flowed in 1903.'
  • 'Appendix 15. Expenditure incurred on the Irrigation Party.'
  • 'Appendix 16. List of maps and sections packed in a tin lined case and filed in the Foreign Office, Simla.'
Extent and format
1 volume (246 folios)
Arrangement

A synopsis of contents is found at folios 12-14.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 248; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

The volume contains a higher than usual number of blank pages, which may have been the result of a printing error.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Seistan. Irrigation report of the Perso-Afghan Arbitration Commission, 1902-1905. Volume I. Report and appendices. Simla: Government of India Foreign Department, 1906' [‎8r] (20/500), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/256, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100040681825.0x000015> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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