1. In order to effect the leveeing, protection and reclamation of the land and other property in the district subject to tax, the board of supervisors is authorized and empowered to straighten, widen, change the course and line of any levee in or out of such district; to fill up any creek, drain, channel, river, watercourse or natural stream; and to divert or divide the flow of water in or out of the district; to construct and maintain sewers, levees, dikes, dams, sluices, revetments, drainage ditches, pumping stations, syphons and any other works and improvements deemed necessary to preserve and maintain the works in or out of the district; to construct roadways over levees and embankments; to construct any and all of such works and improvements across, through or over any public highway, railroad right-of-way, track, grade, fill or cut in or out of the district; to remove any fence, building or other improvements in or out of the district, and shall have the right to hold, control and acquire by donation or purchase, and if need be, condemn any land, easement, railroad or other right-of-way, sluice or franchise in or out of the district for right-of-way, or for any of the purposes herein provided, or for material to be used in constructing and maintaining such works and improvements for leveeing, protecting and reclaiming the lands in the district. The board shall also have the right to condemn for the use of the district any land or property within or without the district not acquired or condemned by the court on the report of the commissioners assessing benefits and damages and shall follow the procedure that is now provided by law for the appropriation of land or other property taken for telegraph, telephone and railroad rights-of-way.

2. In addition to the powers granted in subsection 1 of this section, in any levee district formed under the laws of this state having an assessed valuation of real property of twenty-five million dollars or greater and located, in whole or in part, in any county with a charter form of government and with more than one million inhabitants, the board of supervisors is authorized to construct and maintain water lines and any other works and improvements deemed necessary to preserve and maintain the works in or out of the district.