Taming Rivers

These are the memoirs of Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman Khan (1891-1980), a civil engineer in the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), during the British Indian period. A member of the Imperial Service of Royal Engineers, his memoirs provide a riveting account of the turbulent historical period in the NWFP, which saw the decline of the British Raj from its zenith, under Queen Victoria, to the exit of the British, the Partition of India, and the creation of Pakistan. He made a significant contribution to the irrigation development of the NWFP and Balochistan. After Independence he was appointed a member of the delegation to negotiate the Indus Water Dispute with India. The author is widely recognized as an eminent engineer and his historical perspective on the water resources development of arid regions is a useful reference for those interested in working on these issues in Pakistan.