_ Massive

PAGE 4, THE HERALD, Friday, January 13, 1978

Will affect one third of Russia

USSR Embarked on world’s greatest irrigation project _

- THOMAS KENT

Y, U.S.S.R. (AP)

~ The Soviet Union is
proceeding with a
and con-
troversial program to
solve its irrigation
problems once and for

hee multibillion dollar,

’ dig. enormous

decades-long project to
canals
across its deserts and

reverse the course of

’ Siberian rivers to brin;

t
1
i:
H
t
i
i
'

more water to the sout.
of the country.
The project involves

: Mountains are

i ; discovered infrequently

|

’

in the 1970s. But an ex-
tion «= from the
bridge University
; engineering department
{ found some during 4 sci-

' entific exploration of the

Icelandic ice cap.
Watnajokuell is the
preatest © expanse af wet
t at its melting
, point Europe, ex-
ding for 6,545 square

: kilometres (3,418
’ miles). Underneath It lies
! the mid-Atlantic ridge,

_ which includes

vol-

' canoes, and their heat
: has melted some of the
‘ ice to form sub-giacial

lakes

The leader of the six-
man team was. Keith
Miller, a lecturer in the

cna eters department

yeteran of many

: years’ exploration in the
’ Areti

c

The team’s aim was to
find out what lies below
the frozen surface and the

‘depth of the ice. A

expedition in

1976 tested equipment
and determined

techniques and the ex-

ae itself took place

t May and June, before

the summer ice melt

“Made conditions im-

sible.

Present-day Arctic
explorers no longer use
husky dogs -to pull their
sledy e6. Caterpillar.
tracked vehicles have
taken their place, and
sontls Gipment includes

histicated electronics
and receivers for satellite

MEASURED BY RADAR

To measure the de th ;

of the ice and to ge’

contour map 0 of the hills
and valleys beneath, the
team developed special
radar. sounding equip-

ues did not wor
on wet ice because of its
different electrical
perties, ‘To avercom

o problem,
en incers reduced the
radio frequencies to the
lowest limit
the system becomes
impulse radar and passes
through the wet ice,
reboun ‘off the reck
below to give the depth of
the I {ce and the lle of the

By. taking continuous
neasurements alo
raverse, the scientists
juilt up an accurate
yofile of the t raphy
ind found mountains and

P, G. slaying

- how ice will
mmadar echo-soundin .

At this point.

nearly one third of the
Soviet Union's total
territory. Its goals are to
increase the existing low
levels of the Volga River
and the Aral and Caspian
seas, while irrigating the
deserts of central Asia
and other dry areas
throughout the centre of
the country,

The scheme also in-
volves draining Siberian
areas that have too much
water, building giant
hydroelectric stations
and improving river

» Scientists charting
 Greenlands mountains
| under artic icecap

J

ralleys which are nor-
nally camouflaged by a
vermanent covering of

WAD CLOSE CALLS
The team’s Weasel
saterpillar: vehicle was
ast used 20 years ago by
3ritish Antarctic explor-

rs, The Scott Polar.

‘nstitute gave it to the
»pedition, whase
members renovated it.
When it reached Iceland
it was kitted out with all

the electronic equipment,
becoming in effect a
mobile laboratory.

On the ice cap, where
they spent four weeks,
the scientists had some
hair-raising adventures.
At one point the Weasel
lest traction and the
sledge it was towing,

all the team’s
food and fuel, almost slid

{nto a steaming volcano

pool. Its loss would have
med the expedition to
failure,

Another hazard was an
area of waist-deep slush
which bogged down the
vehicle. The | Weasel
made it firmer
surface but aT the rest of
the equipment, includin i
six 20 kg (616-pound
drums of fuel, had to be
hauled out by hand and it
took the team three days
to get going again.

Bad weather, created. ......,.;

some other problems. In
one 25-knot blizzard the
drifting snow piled on the
equipment and — got
through tiny cracks, even
inside a transvertor in the

‘aeross”-

transport. .
But, concern about the
plans ‘has come from
Environmentalists here
and abroad, who contend
the natural ‘consequences
of such a large program
are impossible to predict.
They argue that the
project might even
change the composition
of the Arctic ice cap and
affect | the world’s

climat

Much of the project's
construction will not
begin until after 1980 and
completion may take .
until the middle of -the —

next century. But here in :!

the Soviet desert republic

-of Turkminstan, near the
Iranian -and -Afghanis

tan
borders, ‘first stages of |

‘the massive’ irrigation
‘program already ‘are.

underway.

CITY .OF SNAKES -
-..Near the Turkmenian
city of Mary (a Turkmen
word: accented on the last
syllable and. meanin
City of Snakes), a can
‘the . ser ent.

infested Karakum desert

‘has turned Jand once good

only for sheep grazin
into land moist enough
for a cotton crop. T

canal, begun in 1954 and
still being expanded, runs

“almost 1,000 kilometres

‘the - water.

from the Amu-Darya -
River toward the Caspian

Twelve times as long as
the Panama canal, it
irrigates more than 3,000
‘square kilometres of
land—an area as big as
Delaware state in the

US.

In neighboring Soviet
Uzbekistan, workers
recetitly completed the
230‘kilometre Amu-
Bukhara canal, which |
flows through the K i
-Kum desert. Meanwhi
the  Irtysh- ‘Karaganda
“canal is bringing water
from .an Ob . ‘River
tributary to other- central
Asian areas.’° -

' The work required to
build these canals has
been” -enormous.
Karakum waterway for
‘example, has . involved
21,000 workers and ex-
uivalent in
8 billion, But
projects
planned for the future are
even greater in scope.

Soviet engineers: want
to-link the resources of
the ‘Pechora, Ob, Dvina |
and. other’ northern
rivers, which pour most
of their water into the
Arctic Sea, with the
Volga and central Asian
‘river systems that water

penses the
rubles of $1.8

The’ bring.

industry
‘grow

“project”:

the southern part of: the

ountry.
Using 8 cone 8 plgger
pete gn vr atations
electric pumping stations
and revered. verbeds

.the northern rivers prt

be made to flow south,

against the natural tilt of
the, continent, -into the 2040
areas that neéd more
water. yet
OTHER PLANS
REMAIN. .__—sis tics
Many of the plans

remain tentative, but
here is some of what is
envisaged:

eers have begun
blas

from: '

Pechora River - to : the:
‘Kama River, a: is wil a
of the: ‘Volga.’ This
a Tew supply -of |

water to the 3,470-Kilo-
metre ‘Volga,-
water leve

dangerously as

course:

- Sea.

semithin 10-to 15 years,

the Soviets 6 plat te starta
.add more...
water. to’ the ‘Volga ‘from -

the northern-flowing
Dvina. River and the
Ladoga and Ega lakes.
The water that eventually

ends up in the Caspian ;

to create a canal’:
e-. northern . bi:
-—Other water from the -

whose ~
has: been .

and opulation »
ong ite southern -
~ the . Caspian -

ot July 2%, 1976, and

AT

‘Sea also will have eco-
nomic importance there, —
since the sea’s caviar and
other products have been
threatened by a declining
water level for more than
20 years.

“2 far larger project, to

be com: ampleted by about

transfer water
from: the Siberian Ob
River to the Aral Sea and ©
irrigation canals in
central Asia. The waters
of the’ Ob, which flow into
the Arctic Ocean, will be
routed south by a 2,282- ©
kilometre canal that ‘will
take more than a million
fone of explosives to
a

‘Ob will be transferred to

Chinese city in rui

TOKYO (AP) . — China
‘ acknowledg

ed Thursday
that the industrial city of .
Tangshan was left in
ruins by the earthquake

‘signs of the havoe ..

still visible,’’
eport by the official
Hsinhua news agency
said industrial production
is 92-percent restored and
attributed this to the
e

are: .

“‘superi ori ty of.

Weasel cabin. When the So

storm abated the’

had to dig cut al ay

every piece o pmen
The team ‘di discovered

that the ice is up to 1,000

metres deep. .
The accurate

topographical map of the

underl round

help in yi tierstanding
flow, how
fast it will do so and when.
it will stop. It also gives
some idea of where cre-
yasses may. form.

The team's findings
have also helped un-
derstanding of a vast
underground lake called
Grimsvoetn. Volcanic
activity melts the ice and
periodically floods

originate under the gla-
cier which cause
widespread destruction
when the water erupts 55
kilometres away in the
southeast of the island.
Now that the nature of tlie
ice cap is beginning to
emerge, it may: be easier
to forecast these dis-
asters,

Trial continues

"PRINCE GEORGE,
Bc, (CP) — A Crown
witness testified Wed-
nesday that one of three
men accused of murder

ibed: the crime to
her shortly ‘after two
persons were shot and

‘John Arthur Haw, 19,
Kehar Singh Gill, 40, and
hls Bon eva, 20, are

charged with first-degree
and conspiracy to
commit murder in the
deaths June 11 of Piara
Singh Thind, 34, an
wife: Gurdip, 24, both of

Laura Lee Nichols
testified that she and a
friend were in a local
beer parlor June 11 when
Haw-sat down at their
table and ‘“‘just started
going into detail .
said that Meva ‘ant

ve the a chance,

ist” ‘ta shooting. ’

- Prince George.

Nichols said that Haw | ,
told her that Mrs. Thind ~

picked up.a board and

chased Haw’ after her

husband was shot,

Haw said he had been
hit by the board, Miss
Nichals testified, and

‘Haw’s arm appeared to

be bruised.

The bodies of the couple
were found about.1 p.m.
June 11 in a ditch about 27
kilometres east of here.
Mr, Thind had been shot

twice, once in the chest — ;

and once in the temple.
Mrs. Thind was shot once -
in the back and her skull ©
was fractured.
Their van was found in
aparking lot June 11. The
passenger's window was
smashed, a large rock
was inside and there was
a large amount of blood
inside, police testified.
There Oo were four

PET -

THIN |

DADRAW. -

‘canals

the Ural River in the Ural

Mountains through ‘two
totalling 804
Kdlometres in length.

—The diversion _of

‘Siberian waters to

south will drain 303,800

square kilometres of

marshy land in Siberia
‘or farming purposes
SCIENTISTS WORRY
Environmentalists
have been concerned
mainly with the diversion
of the Siberian wai

from the Arctic Sea. (pr

Some scientists contend
the loss of the relatively
warm river water may

increase ice formation —
‘there. Others contend the:

loss of the fresh Siberian.
-water could increase the “

‘socialist system.”
The. Chinese,
franaelves”

themselves . to

who

descrip-

tions such as “extreme ly.

losses” and “‘
” have sti

heavy

calamni “not

rted ‘a casualty toll.

‘estern observers
believe more than 600,000
died in the quake which
rocked ihe city of one

million. Western and.
Japanese observers

a SUTUS

confined

ave -

ad nan uwo¥ oh af TOM Senw bivs ,

THE WINNING NUMBERS OF THE JANUARY Sth

salt content of the Arete
Sea, leading to” leas ice
aformation.

Either effect could
change world . climates,
scientists believe,

The Soviet news agency
Tass last year
acknowledged concern

.-over. “poasible- negative
consequences: for
climatological con
ditions” from the project,
and ‘said Soviet. scientists

ter were working - on the

problem.
. Stil, Soviet “scientists
are promising to observe
the Russian proverb
“measure: sever: times,
‘then’ cut: once”. in:egrry-
- ing -out -their: enormeds
‘water, projects, Je

posing year sa
_ see..." nothing."
‘wreckage. ates :
“Heinhiz: -daid ‘Ths
: that “mon more fan ‘per
cen angehat’s
je tories were. wrecked.

But after 17 months, all
270 industrial enterprises
are restored and 92 per
cent are running at pre-
quake capacity.

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