Summary
The London-registered company working the concession, granted to “Mr. Kutenberg” as printed, for the production of electric power from the Jordan, and holding with it the Aujha irrigation concession, whose water Simpson reports still unused for irrigation on a modern scale in 1930 (Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development, lines 1827-1833, 2385-2387).
Details
- The Aujha concession was originally given for the production of electric power and subsequently became a purely irrigation concession when the current was found not to be required for power; a drawback Simpson notes is that using its water generally for irrigation of the Maritime Plain plantations would be liable to diminish or end the existing demand for electric power to pump irrigation water from wells, the power concession being in the same hands as that for the Jordan River (line 1827).
- In 1929 the Corporation promoted a separate irrigation company to take over its irrigation rights in the Aujha concession; the Government approved the transfer on condition an irrigation scheme be submitted within a year and the work done within two years of its approval. The company’s late-1929 scheme for the lands of Petach Tikvah had received no report from the Government technical advisers by the time of Simpson’s enquiry, and the scheme had not been commenced, eight years after the original 1922 concession (lines 1827-1833).
- Simpson lists the Jordan power concession, now being worked by the Corporation, as one of the two potentially most important industries of Palestine; the harnessing of the Yarmuk and the Jordan is complete, and meanwhile power is provided from the Company’s power houses in Tel Aviv, Haifa and elsewhere (lines 2385-2387).
- Citrus pumps in the Maritime Plain are worked either with oil engines or by electric power obtained from the Corporation (line 1965).
Related pages
Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development, Palestine Potash Company, Nesher Cement Factory