Pegu-Sittang Canal

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Pegu-Sittang Canal

A navigable canal in Pegu District, Lower Burma, running generally north-east and south-west and connecting the PEGU and SITTANG rivers. The canal was originally begun in 1873-4, and consisted in the first instance of the length from Tawa, a few miles due south of the town of Pegu, to a village called Minywa. This section joined the Paingkyun and Kyasu creeks; and, as the former flows into the Pegu river and the latter into the Sittang, these rivers were thus connected. In 1878 a lock was built at Tawa, while the Kyasu creek was closed and the canal was extended to Myitkyo, a village in Pegu District on the Sittang, where another lock was built.

A branch running from Pegu south-eastwards into the main canal at Pagannyaungbin was dug in 1883. The length of the canal from Tawa to Myitkyo is 38 miles, and the length of the branch is 8 miles. Tolls are levied for the use of the canal by boats or rafts, yielding about a lakh in 1903-4. The total capital expenditure on the work has been about 44 lakhs. A lock at Minywa, 14 miles from Tawa, is under construction, which, when completed, will esta- blish communication with the Sittang 47 miles below Myitkyo. In the construction of the canal advantage was taken of the numerous natural channels which existed. The canal is consequently very irregular in trace and in bed-width.

There are four escapes, at Kyaik- padaing, at Pagannyaungbin, at Minywa, and at Abya. The canal is protected from the floods of the Sittang by the Pagaing embankment, which extends from Myitkyo to Tazon, and from the floods of the Pegu river by the Pegu river embankment. A third barrier, from Zwebat to Moyingyi on the Pagaing embankment, forms a reservoir which will serve to feed the canal in the dry season. The Pagaing embankment incidentally renders cultivation of a large area of land possible, and the Zwebat-Moyingyi embankment will bring further areas under the plough.