Great Chüy Canal

The Great Chüy Canal (Kyrgyz, [tʃɔɴ tʃyj kʰɑnɑɫɯ], often abbreviated) is one of an extensive complex of irrigation canals of the Chüy Valley in Kyrgyzstan and to some extent Kazakhstan, composed of three branches: the Western Great Chüy Canal, the Eastern Great Chüy Canal, and the Southern Great Chüy Canal. The Great Chüy Canal flows through the northern part of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, from east to west. It was built under the administration of the Soviet Union, with M. V. Patrushev as authoring engineer. Thirty-three thousand individuals took part in building the canal, mainly using pickaxes and shovels (as opposed to heavy machinery), and it remains in collective consciousness in Kyrgyzstan as a major building project of the 20th century. A record was set in on June 16, 1941, as kolkhoz workers dug 90 cubic meters of dirt by hand.

Canal data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).