Jewish Agency Sends Water Pumping Equipment to Israel

The first units of a $2,100, 000 purchase of heavy-duty water pumping equipment manufactured in this country for use in a major irrigation project in Israel, will be shipped from New York City this week, it was announced today by the Jewish Agency which financed the purchase.

The total purchase consists of nine centrifugal pumps and nine diesel engines which, together with their gears and auxilliary equipment, were manufactured by the Worthington Corporation of Harrison, New Jersey. The machinery is consigned to the Mekorot Water Company, a public agency engaged in the development of water resources in Israel. The first shipment–two complete units of pumps, diesels and gears–leaves for Israel aboard the steamer “Henrietta Szold, ” of the Zim-Israel America Lines.

The $2,100,000 contract with the Worthington Corporation was signed in July, 1952, by Gottlieb Hammer, executive director of the Jewish Agency, and Pinchas Sapir, managing director of the Mekorot Water Company. Worthington required nearly two years to engineer and build the highly specialized equipment.

The equipment will be installed in three pumping stations in Israel to carry water from the Yarkon River, near the Mediterranean coast, southward to the Negev, a distance of some 43 miles. It will supply water for irrigation and other purposes to existing agricultural settlements and will make possible the establishment of many new settlements in the arid Negev region. Irrigation of the Negev, a top priority project of the Israel Government, will increase the country’s arable land area by 35 percent and will aid in the absorption of many thousands of new immigrant families.