Summary
The rift valley section between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and the northern end of the Dead Sea, whose irrigation and settlement possibilities the Palestine Partition Commission examines in Chapter VIII of its report (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.57-63).
Details
- The section in view is sixty-five miles long, its bottom falling from 600 feet to nearly 1,300 feet below sea level; in its northern division rainfall may in a good year suffice for cereals without irrigation and water is available from the Jordan, the Yarmuk and the Wadi Araba, while in the southern division rainfall is negligible and settlement depends entirely on perennial springs or a few streams (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.57).
- Wells offer little: on the western bank the completed bores found no water or water too saline, work on two further bores was abandoned in July 1938 after both were attacked by Arabs, and on the eastern bank the wells’ irrigable area is estimated at only 10,000 dunums; better use of the eastern perennial streams might add a suggested 20,000 dunums irrigated annually (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.57-58).
- Large-scale irrigation would require the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan and the Yarmuk, and faces four difficulties: the Palestine Electric Corporation’s Jisr al Majami concession, the absence of any agreement with the Government of Syria on the Yarmuk’s allocation, the probable effect of a lowered Dead Sea level on the Palestine Potash Company, and Christian sentiment at the Place of Baptism (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.59-60).
- Preliminary investigations put a high-level east-side canal’s Yarmuk-only capacity at about 117,000 dunums against a total east-side irrigable area of about 280,000 dunums, and a western canal’s command at about 70,000 dunums; low-level canals south of Jisr al Majami are held impracticable. On the most optimistic view the additional irrigable area is approximately 350,000 dunums, providing, at 30 dunums per holding and 4.75 persons per family, for about 49,000 additional agricultural persons after excluding the part in the proposed Jewish State under Plan A and deducting about 3,000 persons already supported on the rainfall-only portion; pumping from the Jordan would provide for only between 18,000 and 19,000 (Palestine Partition Commission Report, PDF p.60-62).
Related pages
Palestine Partition Commission Report, Palestine Electric Corporation, Palestine Potash Company, Transjordan, Lot viable, Transfer