British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 434. Chapter XI: Irrigation and Drainage: Conclusion

CHAPTER XI.

The Board has normally met each month to discuss problems. recommend action and to report progress, and has inspected localities of special interest. Recommendations have been made from time to time for the demarcation and declaration of Special Areas under the Flooding and Soil Erosion (Prevention) Ordinance, 1941 *. In this way land on which, or from which, erosion and flooding are of special importance is brought under Government management, irrespective of ownership. Soil conservation measures are applied, chief among which is the prevention of the overgrazing which has been the prime cause of the damage. The Board has formulated comprehensive proposals in regard to legislation to control grazing.

23. For the amelioration of rural life the application of accepted principles of soil conservation on a countrywide scale is essential. Propaganda to this end has been started on a small scale by the Board, comprising a soil conservation film, broadcast talks and newspaper articles, but the average rustic is convinced only by practical example. The first operations will serve as a demonstration to the rural population, and with suitable publicity it should prove possible to make all farmers and landowners familiar with the dangers of erosion and the effective measures of cure and prevention. Many of the Jewish farmers and institutions have already realised the importance and urgency of the problem and have recently formed a public committee for the prevention of soil erosion. Practical steps have been taken by the committee to combat erosion on agricultural land by the adoption of sound methods of cultivation. The senior Assistant Conservator of Forests is the technical adviser to this public committee so that close liaison with the Department of Forests and the Soil Conservation Board is maintained. Surveyors of the Board and of the Department of Agriculture have ~!so co-operated with the public committee.

Conclusion.

24. Palestine has great potential resources in her, favourable climate and in the fertile soil created by the breakdown of the rock over a large part of the bills. These resources must be developed by energetic measures to stop soil wastage. Incidental benefits which will accrue include the checking of disastrous floods and the production of great quantities of vegetation, much of which can eventually be made available for conversion into proteins. The Soil Conservation Board is studying this important problem and advising on policy. The function of the Department of Forests will be to put that policy into effect economically and efficiently.
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* Laws of 1941, Vol. I, page 37.

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