Rutenberg Power-house Damaged by Floods Caused by Torrential Rains

The opening of the Rutenberg Power-House, which is to harness the River Jordan for the supply of electrical energy may be delayed for a little time, as a result of a sudden flood coming down with extraordinary violence from the Yarmouk River, breaking through the Fill headrace canal on a thirty metre front, and damaging the outdoor transformer of the station. Repairs have been undertaken, to replace the damaged parts. The Power house and other parts of the works at Jisr el Mejamieh are undamaged.

In connection with this statement issued by the Putenberg Office, the J.T.A. learns that the torrential rains in the Fauran are responsible for the accident.

The London office of the Palestine Electric Corporation (Rutenberg Company) informs the J.T.A. that it has received a cable from its Palestine office, according to which the damage is not serious, and is not likely to cause any considerable delay in the opening of the Jordan Power-house.

The first part of the development provided for the utilisation of the 50 metre fall between Lake Tiberias and Jisr el Mejamieh divided into two steps, with one power house near Jisr and the other near Abadieh, says a writer in the “Palestine Weekly” describing the Rutenberg Works on the Jordan. For the first Jordan Power-house, he proceeds, a dam was built near Delhamieh, retaining water to the depth of six metres, and another dam projected of the waterfall of the Yarmuk, the most important of the Jordan’s tributaries, with a water catchment area of about 7,000 square kilometres to retain water to a depth of 8 metres. To this end there had to be constructed the intermediary Yarmuk reservoir, a canal nearly two kilometres long conveying the Jordan water into Jisr el Mejamieh pressure reservoir and penstocks, through which the Yarmuk and Jordan waters were to be caught by the dams above.

The end of the construction has practically been reached, he states, and Jordan energy is expected soon to be supplied to Haifa. Somewhat later power will be carried by high tension transmission lines to the Jaffa district. The Jordon power-house consists of three 8,000 horsepower turbine generator units, a fourth to be added later when definite data on the amount of water available will be obtained. This power-house will utilise the unregulated waters of the River Yarmuk, supplementing them in the quantites necessary, especially in summer, by the Jordan waters stored in Lake Tiberias. All the civil engineering works are designed for full capacity, the generating sets being added gradually with the increase of consumption of energy. The second power-house at Abadieh will be erected when the requirements for power approach the maximum capacity of the first. Both will then utilise all the waters of the Jordan and Yarmuk, the joint effluent of which will be drawn through Lake Tiberias and passed through the turbines of both power-houses. If necessary a third power-house will be situated to the north of Lake Tiberias and will utilise the Jordan fall of 200 metres, which occurs in the short distance between Lakes Meron and Tiberias.

The Company point out that the scheme guarantees cheap and abundant power for the future development of Palestine, and that not the least interesting feature of the enterprise is that it reverses the usual sequence of supply awaiting the demand. Put in many other respects the execution of the Rutenberg project is unique. Although costing more than on the continent, all machinery has been acquired from England. Labour which has carried these complicated operations was in the beginning mostly unskilled. Much training and organisation were necessary before efficiency reached a point enabling, for example, the erection in six months of the Yarmuk dam, with its 4,200 cubic metres of concrete, and the very difficult excavation of some 5,300 cubic metres of foundations. This is a work which the Company say would be a record under the best European standards.