DAM AVERTS FAMINE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 434, 15 May 1937, Page 2

DAM AVERTS FAMINE

Indian “Black Spot” Wiped i Out Calcutta, May 2. Vast irrigation works now nearing completion in the Nira Valley were th 13 meant by which extensive areas in Bombay-Deccan escaped the ravages caused by the recent drought elsewhere in the Presidency. The Lloyd Dam, named after Lord Lloyd, Governor of Bombay at the time, which is the main feature, of these works, was, at the time of its opening in 1928, the largest structure of its.’ kind in the world:. It is more than a mile long, stands 190 feet high, and is 124 feet wide at its base. The dam conserves a reservoir ■ stretching for 17 miles, which is 142 feet deep in places, and has.' a capacity of 24,200,000,000 cubic feet. The reserve of wat.er made available not only supplies a canal on the left bank, which exiated previously, but also serves a new canal bn the right bank, which ru.»» for 106 J miles' and l commands nearly m.OOO acres of valuable land. Had it not been for tk» water so conserved thi s year the inhabitants Of the areas served by these canals i would have been among those affected by the drought. As.' a result the spectre of famine has been vanished from a region, which is' formerly visited with terrible regularity. With more valuable crops the standard of living has been raised to an extraordinary degree. A black spot on the famine map has become one of the happiest and most prosperous areas in the Deccan.