The talk focuses on some key irrigation projects in the Punjab and Gangetic plains of North India during the 19th century colonial India. The act of modifying the natural system became the structural basis for some new ways of organizing settlements; be it villages or cities. These transformations in the countryside were not merely spatial but also instruments of creating desirable social organization to further the colonial agenda. The talk is a section of the the forthcoming book by Prof Pratyush Shankar titled "Nature and Cities".