2-970-029 - /Heritage Images

Commencement of the Reservoir, in the Valley of Vehar, Island of Salsette, [India], 1856. 'The town...of Bombay, the population of which is estimated at about half a million, are so badly supplied with water that, when the annual rains are deficient in quantity, the place is subjected to all the horrors of drought...To remedy this wretched state of affairs...it has been resolved to form a vast reservoir in the island of Salsette, now joined to...Bombay by the railway viaduct. The valley of Kehar, embosomed in hills, is to be converted into a lake by means of embankments at its embouchure; and the water thus collected is to be conveyed into Bombay, a distance of some fifteen miles, through iron pipes...[for the raising of the first turf], tents had been pitched for the reception of the company, and into these it thronged on the arrival of Lord and Lady Canning, Lord Elphinstone, and their party...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.