British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 415

CHAPTER X.

70. The Huleh. project. The only large single irrigation or drainage project, the execution of which would in quantity of water and economic cost compare favorably with financially sound irrigation works in other countries, is the Huleh scheme. The Royal Commission in their Report (chapter DC, paragraphs 120-125) gave a description of it. The Huleh has in is the well known salient projecting into Lebanon and Syria; it includes the lake and the large papyrus swamp to the north of the Jake, and, further north still, the tract of land intersected by the rivers and streams which form the headwaters of the Jordan. It is now, pending the development of the scheme, irrigated in a very haphazard manner, by a network of small indigenous canals. Malaria, in spite of the efforts of the Health Department; is still a cause of anxiety.

The lower part of the Hulel has in, the lake and marshes, are the subject of a concession:" held by the Palestine Land Development Company, a Jewish corporation. The net area at the disposal of the concessionaires is about 42,000 dunums, most of it now under water.

ln 1935 a firm of British consulting engineers, Messrs. Rendel, Palmer and Tritton, examined the area and submitted a report with their proposals for the drainage and irrigation of the whole Huleh has in and it is very largely this scheme, modified as necessary on the has is of subsequent investigations, which the Government of Palestine propose should be executed. As there is a comprehensive report made by the consulting engineers, it is not necessary here to go into the technicalities of the project.

The scheme secures adequate drainage throughout the has in, including the lake and marshes, and in addition provides for the new irrigation of 51,500 dunums and the improvement of indigenous irrigation on 52,500 dunums.

Before, however, the project can be embarked upon, the obstacle of the clause in the Palestine Electric Corporation's concession, which prevents any new irrigation, has to be surmounted. There is also a conflict between the electric concession, whose interest it may be to keep the water in the lake for storage purposes, and the drainage concession, whose duty it is to empty it. Furthermore, as the Royal Commission pointed out, it will be necessary for the Government to arm itself with statutory powers to control the drainage and irrigation, and to limit, in the initial settlement, the rights to water exercised by any individual **.
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* Vide paragraph 10 of chapter XXV.
** Royal Commission's report, chapter IX, paragraph 125.

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