DIVERTING THE SIBERIAN RIVERS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 6163, 10 March 1914, Page 4

DIVERTING THE SIBERIAN RIVERS.

A daring l scheme is proposed in Russia for altering the flow of waters, on so vast a scale that even meteor* ological and climatic conditions may be improved. Agricultural interests in the eastern and southern provinces suffer severely from the frequent droughts, which are ascribed partly to extensive deforestation and partly to the progressive drying up of Western Asia. The idea has been conceived of diverting the flow ofi certain Siberian rivers from the north to the south so that their waters would eventually find their Svay into those great inland seas, the Ural and the Caspian. As the surface of these would be thereby doubled or even quadrupled, there would be a great increase in the at* mospheric moisture and consequent precipitation of the surrounding country, as well as larger available supplies for irrigation where desirable. This diversion of flow is to be accomplished by building dams across the Obi and Tobol rivers at points where their banks ar e exceptionally high. When the water had reached the top of the banks it would stand at a far higher level than the Caspian, and considerably above the Ural. It would then only be necessary to cut a short canal through the divide which separates the northern* flowing from the southern-flowing rivers to Western Asia to direct the fructifying waters of these mighty streams towards the two great lakes instead of allowing them to be lost in the Arctic Ocean.