The first stage of the Jordan-Negev pipeline, Israel’s largest irrigations project, should be completed by the end of 1963, if the current work pace keeps up. Aharon Wiener, chief engineer of the Israel Water Planning Authority, told members of the Knesset Finance Committee during a tour of the headwaters of the Jordan River. The Jordan-Negev pipeline is being constructed to bring the waters of the Jordan River to Israel’s parched Negev.
Israel’s plans to divert some of the Jordan waters have evoked threats of war from President Nasser of the United Arab Republic and announcements of plans by Lebanon and Syria to divert tributaries in their territories of the Jordan River.
Large volumes of Jordan water will begin irrigating parts of the Negev on completion of the first stage of the project at the end of 1963, Mr. Wiener told the deputies. An interim project, involving the laying of a 108-inch pipeline from the Pardes Hanna area to Tel Aviv, will be ready by the summer of 1962 to relieve the growing water shortage in the vicinity of Israel’s largest city, Mr. Wiener said.
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