Seventy years ago, the British government offered Theodor Herzl the Karamoja district of the then Crown Colony of Uganda in East Africa as a site for Jewish colonization. The Zionist movement rejected the offer even though Dr. Herzl seriously considered it for a time. Last month, the government of Uganda invited Israeli water resources experts to the same district to help develop its underground and surface water resources, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. A contract was signed at Kampala with the Tahal Co. to carry out planning stages at a cost of $500,000. The Israeli firm will later participate in international bidding for the overall project.
The Karamoja district bordering on the Sudan, covers 7.5 million acres, a larger area than all of Israel before the Six-Day War. It is inhabited by only about 300,000 nomadic tribesmen who tend cattle, goats and sheep. A spokesman for Tahal told the JTA that the project was especially important inasmuch as Uganda is the first East African state to invite Israeli water resources planners.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
