 "The inter-linking of rivers was envisaged decades ago when a pure engineering perspective was deployed by the government, treating rivers like canals")
Towns situated close to canals in India witnessed faster urbanisation but not industrialisation, according to a paper by researchers at the Development Data Lab, a non-profit research organisation.
Construction of canals led to an increase in population in the areas they serviced, due to a combination of migration and natural growth. However, there was no increase in the non-farm jobs in these new towns, even more than 100 years after canal construction, the paper--which studied data for the period 1901 to 2011--found.
The availability of water allowed farmers in these canal-irrigated towns to grow more crops, even in the winter.
