Sudan Anglo -Egyptiau ] IRRIGATION SCHEMES 123 under detailed consideration, and, if it were carried out, it is probable that over 1,000,000 acres of the Sudan in the sudd region could ultimately be reclaimed for cultivation . The originator of the scheme' pro posed to utilize the material excavated from the canal asan embankment for a railway, which would serve as a link in the Cape -to -Cairo line. In recent years, how a . , ever, the main channel of the Upper Nile from Shambe to Lake No has been cleared of sudd . The enormous expense of cutting the proposed canal would therefore appear to be unjustifiable, unless there were some danger of the waterway becoming again unnavigable.

An alternative, apparently , is the regulation ofthe inain river-channel passing through the swamp region ; but, even if this could be effectively accomplished, the results would be more uncertain than those of the canal. Regulation of the river above the sudd region could be secured by building a small dam at the outflow from Lake Albert, which then would have enormous capacity as a storage reservoir. It is realised that, if the Bor -Sobat canal were constructed , the control of the flood water in the White Nile would be difficult unless the Lake Albert dam were also constructed.

On the Khor Gash and Khor Baraka flood water control works have been already begun in conjunction with the Kassala and Red Sea railway extension; £E . 300,000 having been allowed for the control works in addition to the sum allotted for the construction of the railway For the development of basin irrigation in the Don gola province it is proposed to continue the conversion of the remaining basin lands into perennial irrigation lands, either by building a barrage or by extending the right to pump water from the Nile, a right which hitherto has been retained exclusively by the Egyptian Government in order to safeguard the water supply of Lower Egypt.

Sir William Willcocks, K.C.M.G [3919] K