UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE FAR EAST FLOOD CONTROL JOURNAL ST/ECAFE/SER.C/17 December 1953 CONTENTS Page The Bureau of Flood Control and Water Resources Development .... 3 I. Semi-autonomous bodies to administer projects ..................... 4 II. Equipment and programme of hydraulic laboratories ................. 7 India Hydraulic Research Station, Krishnarajasagar, Mysore . 7 Pakistan Hydraulic Research Laboratory, Dacca, East Bengal .... 8 Hydro-Dynamic Research Station, Hyderabad, Sind ........ 10 III. Estimating maximum flood........ ........................... .. 12 IV. Progress in rainmaking research in Australia ................... • 13 V. Atomic probe for soil moisture measurement ....................... 18 VI. Regional projects Hong Kong Proposed irrigation schemes in the Nev; Territories . 19 India Lifting dam across river Tunga in Mysore State ........ 27 The Walayar Irrigation Project ......................... 37 - 2 - CONTENTS (cont'd) Page India ( cont1d) The Mangalam Project .................................... 41 The Mayurakshi Project......................... .. 42 The Chalakudy river development ....................... 44 The Mudki-Golewala distributary system ................. 47 The lift irrigation scheme ............................. 49 The progress of the Damodar Valley Corporation ........ 50 The Poringalkuthu Hydro-Electric Scheme ............... 56 Nepal Plan for the development of Nepal ..................... 60 Pakistan Development plan for the Baluchistan States.......... 61 The Karnafuli Hydro-Electric Project ................... 63 Underground water reservoirs ........................... 64 The Ganges-Kobadek Scheme ............................. 64 The Taunsa Project ...................................... 65 The Gilghit Projects .................................... 65 Repairs to the Lloyds Barrage . ....................... 66 New canal for the Punjab planned ... ................. 66 Two irrigation projects for the Punjab approved .... 66 Philippines The Padada River Irrigation Project .... .......... 66 VII. Projects outsdie the region The Paraiba-Pirai Diversion (Brazil)....................... 69 The Kansas River Flood-Way Plan (United States of America) 73 - 3 - Bureau of Flood Control and Water Resources Development The Bureau of Flood Control of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East will henceforth be known as the Bureau of Flood Control and Water Resources Development of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. - 4 - I. SEMI-AUTONOMOUS BODIES TO ADMINISTER PROJECTS1/ The Rao Committee which inquired into the administration of the Damodar Valley Project (India) has strongly supported the system of semi-autonomous corporations for administering multiple-purpose projects. "It is the best method yet devised" it says "of executing multiple-purpose projects efficiently and economically; where it has failed to achieve results, it is more because of the defects in the personnel of the corporation or of the government departments or both than anything inherent in the concept of the corporation itself". The committee also says: "The acceptance of the corporation idea implies removal of treasury control and checks imposed by civil service regulations. It also means limitation of the authority of the government and parliament in respect of matters which are dealt with finally by the statutory corporation". according to the Rao Committee, the duties and powers of a corporation should be as follows: (1) A corporation should be created only when a project has been investigated in sufficient detail, and a fairly firm estimate has been sanctioned by the government. (2) Within the sanctioned project estimate, the corporation should have full power to execute the project, without any outside interference. It should not have any power to modify the scope of the project. That power should vest only in the government. (3) If the project estimate is likely to be substantially exceeded, the corporation must come to the government for revised sanction. (4) After complotion of the project the corporation should have full powers to run its commercial or quasi-commercial activities, irrigation, navigation, power and flood control. /(5) In regard to 1/ Abstracted from an article in Hindustan Times, 24 July 1953 - 5 - (5) In regard to non-commercial activities like soil conservation, afforestation, etc., schemes should be submitted by the corporation to the government for approval before they arc taken up. Such schemes should be implementated only to the extent approved by the government. (6) The budget estimates of the corporation should be subject to government approval. (7) Power should be taken by the government to give directions "as to the exercise and performance by the corporation of its functions" somewhat on the lines of the air Corporations act, 1953. (8) The powers reserved for the government under these proposals should vest in the Central Government, as it would obviously be impossible for a corporation to consult different governments, which might give different decisions. In other respects, the scheme of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) may be followed. The committee says: "The Estimates Committee has recommended that full parliamentary control over the various river valley schemes should be ensured; that all the plans relating to a scheme should be laid before parliament as soon as the scheme is sanctioned, together with an explanatory memorandum, and that changes in the plans or estimates should be got approved by parliament after they are first examined by the committee. We are unable to agree with these suggestions in so far as statutory corporations are concerned, as they would have the effect of placing them in a position worse than that of government departments". /Referring to - 6 - Referring to the DVC Act, the Rao Committee does not agree with its provision that "the members of the Corporation shall be appointed after consultation with the State Governments." It says: "be do not consider it a sound principle to provide for regional representatives or corporations of this nature." The committee, similarly, is opposed to part-time members of corporations who make difficult the holding of frequent meetings of the corporations. It would reduce the strength of a corporation to the chairman and two members. Although the committee would not prescribe the qualifications of the members by statute, it felt that in the selection of the personnel the functional element should be given more attention. In the committee's opinion, the policy-making corporation is in every way better than the functional board. Here the Rao Committee has radically differed from the Estimates Committee. Also it does not accept the Estimates Committee's recommendation that the functions of initiating and making plans for a project should vest in the Central Water and Power Commission. The Planning Commission, it might be mentioned, would prefer to entrust it to State Governments which may take assistance as required from the Central Water and Power Commission. The committee holds that the Estimates Committee's proposal would make the Central Water and Power Commission very unwieldy and that it is doubtful whether the economy in planning and designing envisaged by the Estimates Committee would be realized in practice. "We suggest that freedom of corporations to choose their own consultants should, remain unhampered", says the committee. /II. EQUIPMENT AND PROGRAMME - 7 - II. EQUIPMENT AND PROGRAMME OF HYDRAULIC LABORATORIES In the Flood Control Journal for September 1953 (ST/ECAFE/SER.C/16), information was given about the equipment and programme of the different hydraulic laboratories in the ECAFE region as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Further information has since been received from the Hydraulic research Station Krishnarajasagar (India) the Hydraulic research Laboratory, Dacca, East Bengal and the Hydro-Dynamic research Station, Hyderabad, Sind (Pakistan); it is given below. INDIA Hydraulic Research Station, Krishnarajasagar, Mysore 4. Additions to essential equipment available for experiments during the past year. A. Experimental flumes 20 All fixed, glass 2, masonry 18 B. Measurement of water level 6 Hook gauges C. Velocity measurement 1 Pitot tube 2 Current metres D. Discharge measurement (0.6 m3/sec) 4 Cipolletti weirs 20 cu ft/sec (1.5 m3/sec) 1 " " 50 cu ft/sec (0.6 m3/sec) 1 " " 20 cu ft/sec (0.06-0.15 m3/sec 4 " " 2-5 cu ft/sec (0.75 m3/sec) 1 90°V - notch 2.5 cu ft/sec m3) 1 Tank 700 cu ft (21 /F. Silt - 8 - F. Silt 1 Soil auger H. Other important equipment 2 20 hp pumping sets 5. Programme of work New projects Applied problems for the design and study of spillways and protective works of new projects taken up. 6. Publications (1) Annual Research Publication for 1952, by the Research Station, Krishnarajasagar (2) Volute siphons, by V. Ganesh Iyer, Director (3) "Dimensional Analysis as a Tool in Hydraulic Model Studies", by D. Doddiah, Assistant Director. (4) "A Short Note on Surkhi Mortar", by D. Doddiah, Assistant Director (5) "Lining for Irrigation Canals", by D. Doddiah, Assistant Director. PAKISTAN Hydraulic Research Laboratory, P.O. Tejgaon, Dacca, East Bengal 5. Programme of work Continuing project A. Model study of spillway of Karnaphuli dam (1) Practical model study. Scale 1 : 90 (2) To determine the flow pattern and river bed scour for various discharges; lay-out of exit channel and guidewall. (3) Results not yet