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.
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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.
