HAPPY INDIA 173 



motors, and the current is derived from hydro-electric 

 generators. 



The gradient of the canal is too steep for it to be 

 permissible to let the water run straight along at 

 that gradient, therefore dams are put in at suitable 

 distances and the canal is stepped down in steps of 

 varying height from 4 feet to 9 feet. At these 

 dams it is possible to put a hydro-electric station to 

 take the power of the water falling 5 feet or 9 feet 

 as the case may be. The power gained from this 

 hydro-electric station is conveyed by overhead wires 

 carried on suitable steel towers to a distance to 

 work other pumps, or for other purposes. The 

 water that is thus pumped up is available for irriga- 

 tion purposes, and is sold for that purpose, so that 

 the cost of the pumping is not an expense, because the 

 cultivators will pay more than the cost of pumping 

 for the water that is delivered to them. So this system 

 of hydro-electric power pumping will have a great 

 beneficial effect when it is carried out on a sufficient 

 scale. It will drain the water-logged areas of the 

 Punjab, and so greatly improve the health of the 

 population, which suffers enormously from malaria, 

 caused by the water-logging of the ground, caused 

 by the irrigation canals which the Government put 

 up without considering sufficiently the question of 

 subsoil drainage. Possibly the engineers thought 

 that they might make the canal watertight, and 

 that could be done if sufficient money was spent. 

 The difficulty to-day is this, that a large population 

 depends upon this canal for its water in order to 



