DAMAGE TO LAND BY WATEELOGGING 83 



considerable difficulty. These charges are very small 

 as compared with the potential value of irrigation 

 water in an arid tract, so small indeed that, as we 

 have seen, the canals do not pay, and the result is 

 that there are no funds available to equip the canal 

 areas with an adequate system of drainage or an 

 efficient system of roads. On the Nira Left Bank 

 section of perennial irrigation, out of a total area of 

 81,000 acres commanded by irrigation, 9000 acres have 

 been ruined and 18,000 acres damaged. On the God- 

 avari Canals, which have been opened only ten years, 

 6300 acres have been totally or partially ruined, up 

 to date, by water-logging and the salt efflorescence that 

 results from it. This water-logging is, no doubt, 

 largely due to waste of water on the part of the culti- 

 vators ; but experiments have shown that it could be 

 prevented or even cured by effective drainage, if only 

 the financial position of the canals were such as to 

 warrant an increase of capital expenditure. 



Now what is the remedy for this ? It is not pro- 

 posed to enter into a disquisition on the details of 

 canal management or to reiterate the disadvantages 

 which arise from the excessive subdivision of the land. 

 All that it is proposed to state on the general question 

 is that, as the new canals develop and the demand for 

 water increases, the principle for general adoption 

 should be to supply the water as far as possible only 

 to people who have put their land into a condition 

 which makes effective irrigation possible, and to those 



