At the turn of the 20th century, the vast majority of Siamese were rice farmers who lived and worked along waterways. Fishermen, too, lived close to or on the rivers and canals. Every household had a boat, an estimated 600,000 of which navigated the canals and rivers of Bangkok. During the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1868 1910), many irrigation projects were ordered, the first of which was the Rangsit Canal in 1890.