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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' [‎83r] (170/500)

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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CHAPTER XI.
Probable rates for each class of work if large canals are ever made in
Seistdn.
Canals have this great difference from railways that the great bulk of
the work is done in the country from the material at hand. The "older canals
on the Jamna and the Ganges had little or no iron in their structures being
built entirely of brick, stone, lime and wood obtained on the spot. S
The main expenditure on irrigation construction is in earthwork, the cost of
earthwork is entirely in labour, usually called unskilled, but, as a fact, very rapid
progress is not made till the works have been long enough in hand for workmen
to become inured to this severe form of labour.
The next item of expenditure is on # masonry, i.e., bricks and lime; the
greater part of the cost of bricks and lime is on'fuel, and the balance is on
labour, that is, more skilled than that employed on excavation, but not so skilled
as the artizans employed to lay the bricks. Of the latter only a comparatively
small number are required. They are a class easy to recruit, manage and
handle and once the so-called unskilled labour is obtained in sufficient quantities,
and arrangements are made for fuel, the progress on the work is secured, and
economical work is only a matter of business ability in handling money.
In large works in the bed of a river the next big item of expenditure is
p umping . doubtless pumping. We may dispose of
this item in detail at once. It involves
expenditure in England in machinery and local expenditure on fuel. The few
artizans required are now plentiful in India, easily recruited, and admirable men
in every way. Pumping machinery is not bulky or difficult to convey, and if
required could be easily taken from Nushki to Seistan ; the road is very much
better now than those from the sea ports to the Diamond Fields of Griqualand
West, as I knew them as boy ; the distance was about the same; water and
grazing was not much more plentiful than it is along the trade route: but dig
gers expected less than those brought up amid the resources of the fertile
plains of India.
But there is every reason to think that no pumping* will be required in
Seistan ; the alluvial is almost if not quite impermeable to water except at places
fSee last page but one of Appendix 23 of “ Reve- where pockets of sand are met with;
nue Report and Notes.” these are usually well known,f being the
sites for wells of drinking water in dry years. If subsoil water cannot be alto
gether avoided, it can probably be dealt with by hand baling, a very efficient me
thod of unwatering in shallow lifts, for which centrifugal pumps are now used,
but which in old days of cheap labour were almost invariably baled}.
Steam engines should be avoided, if possible: the fuel available locally is
only highly inflammable scrub which can only be burnt in furnaces of a special
pattern; these may not be obtainable in the market; at any rate no Indian engi
neer is likely to be familiar with their use.
On the second page of Appendix 9 of this Report a suggestion has been
thrown out that some use should be made of camel-thorn and wormwood for fuel
either by compressing the plant, or extracting its inflammable juice. Afghanistan
is apparently an even more treeless country than Baluchistan and some convenient
source of energy is much needed to develop the country : coal and petroleum are
found in Baluchistan, but unless railways are pushed on ahead of other develop
ments these cannot be fully utilized; whilst these plants can be got where
neither coal or petroleum will ever be found, and it will be obvious to any one
studying the economical development of these lands that the energy in these
shrubs should, if possible, be made available to drive motors.
* From Technical Section Paper No. 133 on the Jhelum Canal headworks by the late Mr. H. J. Johnston, C.I.E.,
Superintending Engineer, the cost of pumping was 5 per cent, of the cost of the weir,undersluices and the regulator.
J Experts at baling can be got in the Gurdaspur , or any other District where lift irrigation is largely done :
it would be well to recruit and take a hundred or so of these to Seistan. They will bale in the Punjab at a rate
of about Re. 1 per 1,000 cubic feet on a single lift of 6 feet and earn high wages.

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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' [‎83r] (170/500), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/256, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100040681825.0x0000ab> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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