r:88 SWAT' Rf irEl2 C'ANAL
bank of thé Swàt river &t Abàzai, and ,irrigating about isg,ooo acres:
The' place of a, west is taken by a natural reef stretçhing across the:
r-ivér- below the hèad xegula,tôr. The regulator has seven openings Uf
~e feét each, and' is protécted at each end by fortified blockhouses,
forming one of the chain of frontier posts garrisoned by the border
military poke. _ The main. channel has a width of 3r feet and a depth
when full of q•35 feet; it can, carry a supply of 865 cubic feet per,
second, In a total length. ~f z z~ miles there are no less than z r
drainage works,, which carry under or oven the canal the water of the
numerous, mountain torrents that intersect its course. These are for-
the most: part crossed by massive stone-aqueducts, and the canal
banks for some distance above and below these crossings are of a great
height. About z86 miles of distributary channels have been aligned
on the watersheds between the torrents, the most important being the
trans-Kalpàni distributary;, which has a discharge of g4 cubié feet
per .second and a length of nearly r4~ miles, and in which there are
fourteen drainage works of importance.
The tract commanded by the canal is that portion of the dry,
sparsely populatéd Yûsufzai plain which is bounded on the north by the
canal itself, on the west and south by the Swàt. and Kàbul rivers, and
on the east by the Mokarn nullah, a tributary of thè Kalpàni. The
country rises so rapidly on the north of the canar up to the foot of the
hills that it cannot bé brought under command., The canal tract itself
is cut up by innumerable nullahs running generally from north to
south, and carrying the drainage from the hills ot~ the north to the
Srvât and Kàbûl rivers. on the vest and south: The great cost of
the canâl was due to thé difficulty of taking it across these channels,
some of which aré of great size.
The main .canal was, opened in z88y, and the trans-Kalpàni dis-
tributary in r8gg. The Naushahra minor, a channél irrigating two
grass farms near Naushahra, was constructed in rgor. The area
irrigated in both harvests during the three years ending rgor-z
averaged r6r,ooo acres, and in rgo3-4'it was rsg,ooo acres, The
'total capital éxpenditure to the end .of March, ngo4, was 4x•4 lakhs,
The canal was originally sanctioned as a prgtective work, no profit
being anticipated, owing to the high cost of construction. . :The` whole
accumulated interest charges were, however, paid off in fiftéen years,
and the net revenue in rgog-4 (Rs.4,sq,ooo) exceeded io per cent. on
the capital expended. The canal has thus become ~, remunerative
investment to Government, besides contributing in no small degrée to
the peace of the border. It fails, however, to touch the part:of Yùsuf-
zai between the main channel and the border hills to thé north, where
vatèr is badly needed ; and it is accordingly proposed to drive a tunnel
~tMrough thè Malakand range and tap the Swàt rivèr near Chakdarra.
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