WATERS OF BABYLON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13299, 7 February 1914, Page 9

WATERS OF BABYLON.

GARDEN OF EDEN TO FLOURISH AGAIN. NEW LIFE IN THE CRADLE OF THE WORLD. BAGDAD, Dec. 15. The Vali of Bagdad, inaugurated the Hindujah barrag. on Friday. Tht water, being • successfully diverted into the old Euphrates channel, has passed by Babylon. ' The completion of the Hindujah barrage is the first step m the great scheme i worked out by Sir William Willcocks, , the famous English engineer, for restor- « ing fertility to the garden of^ Eden. l The work has been done for the Turkish i Government by Sir John Jackson, Ltd., > and when the whole Svork is completed Mesopotamia avUl again bccomo one oi i the granaries of tho Avorld. | The total cost, it is estimated, Avill be . about £15,000,000, biit as the Turkish . Government m, 1911 had not the money I m hand, it Avas decided to carry out s the Avork piecemeal. By the construction of the new bar- ; rage flooels will be avoided, m th© terri- > tory below the. dam, and half a million acres of land which had lapsed into i desert will be fully irrigated, and AviU . become fertile once more. i? The next step will bo tho construction - of another dam at Lake- Habanieh, all most opposite Bagdad, and Avhen this is 3 done Mesopotamia Avill be entirely protected from floods. 1 Babylon will benefit by the Avork 5 which has just been completed, as the surplus Avater will be' diverted into tho i old Babylonian reservoir, and will there Ho stored for irrigation purposes..