Measures Taken in Palestine to help Irrigation and Drainage Since 1937, British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 396. Chapter X

CHAPTER X.

Section 2.

MEASURES TAKEN SINCE 1937.

26. The activities of the Government irrigation authority in the period since the report of the Royal Commission in June 1937 up to the end of 1945 are described briefly in the following paragraphs.

27. The memoranda* submitted by Government to the Royal Commission and the report of the Commission describe the measures which had been taken by Government up to that time. The Royal Commission found ** that in Palestine there were four sources of irrigation to be considered - irrigation from rivers, from springs, from wells and from reservoirs.

28. In the matter of irrigation from rivers, they considered the Auja and the Jordan. The former was dismissed as a small river, and the prospects of irrigation from the Jordan appeared to them to be exceedingly doubtful. The position has not greatly changed since then, except that a great deal more investigation has been made.

29. As to irrigation from springs, the Commission pointed out that, before the surface water resources of the country could be properly developed, legislation to control the distribution economically and beneficially was essential. (Chapter IX, para. 100). They referred to the fact• that similar legislation bad been found necessary in all countries where irrigation is of importance, in Australia, Canada, India, and the 'drier' States of America. Adequate staff, they recommended, should be engaged to secure the reasonably rapid development of the surface water of the country.

30. Irrigation from wells is, and likely always to remain, the Commission agreed, the chief source of irrigation in Palestine. They advised the Government to enact an Ordinance, the draft of which was ready at that ti.me, to enable Government to maintain a continuous survey of underground water conditions, to extend and increase the exploratory work, and to control the exploitation of underground water, so as to prevent pumping beyond the safe yield of the water bearing formations. In other irrigation countries unrestricted tapping of undergronnd supplies appears to have had disastrous results.

31. The Commission reported that experiments carried out with the possibilities of irrigation from reservoirs bad been most disappointing and expressed the hope that further investigations might lead to better results.
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* Colonial No. 133, page 31 and 65-68.

** Report or the Royal Commission, chapter IX, paragraph 96 et seq.

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