The county commissions of the several counties in this state containing contiguous bodies of lands subject to overflow or inundation or endangered or liable to be endangered by bank erosion or wash from rivers bordering upon or wholly within the state, may divide the territory of their respective counties subject to overflow or inundation or other damage into one or more districts, every such district of which, as well as those hereafter organized under the provisions of sections 245.285 to 245.545, shall be a body corporate, and possess the usual powers of a corporation for public purposes, under the name and style of “levee district No. ______ of ______ County”; and in that name shall be capable of suing and being sued, of holding such real and personal property as may at any time be either donated to or purchased by them in accordance with the provisions of sections 245.285 to 245.545, or of which they may be rightfully possessed at the time of the passage of this law, having reference to the locality of the land and the character of the riverfront, including in each of said districts, as near as possible, all the land subject to overflow or inundations, or endangered or liable to be endangered by bank erosion or wash from the same crevasses, bayous, draws or outflows from rivers, and in the same direction, and which can be protected by the same levee or system of levees or bank protection; provided, that when it shall be made to appear in any way that there shall be land in two or more counties subject to overflow or inundation from the same crevasses, bayous, draws or outflows from a river, and in the same direction, and which can be protected by the same levee or system of levees, either county, by and with the consent of the county commission of the other county or counties, duly entered of record, may lay off such territory of said county or counties into a levee district, in the same manner as herein provided for territory wholly within such county; provided, that in the event any work is to be done upon any navigable stream, the consent of the federal government shall be obtained to make such improvement or improvements before the actual work on the improvement shall be begun.