British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 421

CHAPTER X.

90. Floodcontrol and water storage on Wadi Snrar . The Wadi Sarar has a long and narrow catchment extending from the Jerusalem hills to the Mediterranean sea. The lower portion of the catchment on the coastal plain is well cultivated, with water from wells, but in years of heavy rainfall damage is caused by the wadi overflowing its banks. In the foothill area there is good soil but little underground water and here flood water would be very useful if storage from winter to summer could be achieved.

A reservoir of sufficient size to detain floods to safe proportions would not be large enough for the dual purpose of flood control and storage of water for irrigation; on the other band a storage reservoir of economical size would not serve as a means of controlling large floods. After each flood the water would be released. There should first be made a dam for flood detention. If the results appear promising, a second dam should be built. One of them will then be used for the storage of irrigation water and the other as a detention dam for the control of the floods.

Considered purely as a means of controlling floods the first dam will be expensive but its cost may be justified as a full scale experiment to show the potentialities of storing stormwater in a bill reservoir for summer cultivation.

91. Utilisation of water from Ras el 'Ein. After the Jordan sources, the Ras el 'Ein is the largest spring in Palestine. From it the river 'Auja flows across the coastal plain to the sea. This is the source from which the Jerusalem city water supply is pumped and in the future it is possible that other municipalities such as Lydda, Tel Aviv and Jaffa may wish to draw on it for their domestic supplies. A small part of the water is taken by small pumps along the banks of the 'Auja and used for irrigation but there is not likely to be any great increase in this, since water is readily obtainable from wells nearer the land to be irrigated. In any case a clause in the electric concession" restricts the removal of water from the river.

The river not infrequently falls below 4.'15 cubic metres per second in the autumn and, so, it is unlikely that the amount available in the low water season for new irrigation schemes can exceed 2~ cubic metres per second. Assuming that the concession difficulty is overcome the water might be pumped for irrigation to an area of 8,000 dunums lying immediately to the east of Ras el 'Ein and about 50,000 dunums north-west of Tulkarm.

It is possible that a small pumped supply might augment that obtained from boreholes or from the proposed storage reservoir in Wadi Jindas, to irrigate lands east of Ramle.
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* Drayton, Vol. I, pages 646-657.

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