Arye Bar Kol, director of the Jewish National Fund’s land development department, explained to newsmen here how the JNF carries out its land reclamation and development work on more than 500 sites from the Sinai to the Golan Heights. This year’s budget for the land development department amounts to IL 150 million, of which 25 percent is derived from contribu- tions and a matching amount from the Jewish Agency’s settlement department. Fifty percent of the budget is supplied by government ministries which order certain projects. But the IL 65 million budget for the JNF’s afforestation work comes entirely from private contributions, Bar Kol said.
He said the Golan Heights contained some difficult terrain and the JNF is beginning its reclamation work there only after long preliminary studies. He said one of the problems is supplying settlement areas with water, which is done by digging pools and tapping the waters of larger streams some distance away. The JNF also builds roads in that region. Bar Kol said.
He stated that the land reclamation agency also reclaims large plots for moshavim (cooperative farms) in Galilee and builds roads. Similar work is being done at farms in the Jerusalem and other regions. In the Jordan Valley and Arava regions, the JNF is engaged in drainage projects to draw off the waters of winter floods. Work in the Rafah salient is concentrated around the new development town of Yamit, Bar Kol said.
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