Philip Tunnel: A South African irrigation first

Abstract

Water History droughts. In 1829 James Wait started digging the first irrigation canal from the Klein River with the assistance of 50 workmen and 50 head of cattle. A year later the canal was finished and 400 acres (1,6 km2) of land could be irrigated. Philip’s eldest son, William Enowy Philip, was sent to London for his schooling but ran away from College to join the Royal Navy and later the merchant navy to become a navigator. In 1833, after an adventurous cruise on the Indian Ocean, he came back to South Africa to study surveying in Cape Town.

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