NATS 1840 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Arthur Cotton, Colonial India, Silt
22 Feb 2019
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Nats 1840 f lecture 10 colonialism and agrarian water management. Flood management for agricultural and damage prevention. Floods in the orissa delta in colonial india. Flood control embankments, flooding, cheap and easy to build. Colonel arthur cotton, canals to control the river, irrigate, commerce. Economic concerns, indian empire transferred to crown ownership (1858), private capital was investing in transport networks. Canals better than railways, equal investment, investment guarantees. System slow to develop, under-utilized, government takeover in 1868. Many irrigators did not use system, rate reductions, distinguishing between licensed and unlicensed areas, rate collection. Laws against bunds, small embankments created by cultivators to trap water from drainage lines . Forms of water capture: ponds, tanks and drainage canals. Government forced use of canal system rather than local sources. Owners rate for land was to be increased when irrigation was added. Embankments prevented smaller scale flooding, which brought fertilizing silt.
