With increasing world population, it is imperative that the basic needs of the increasingly growing number of people should be satisfied. One important basic need is productive employment. Creation of new employment opportunities for people entering in the labour force will become more difficult in the future than in the past due to the increasingly rapid growth of the labour force.
From past experiences in many developing countries, irrigation can be viewed as a means of creating new employment opportunities. The future employment potential from construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation works is enormous, especially in developing countries, where much of the new construction will occur and where unemployment problems are most serious.
By Asit K. Biswas, 1980. Working Paper, International Labour Organisation, Geneve.