The State Department yesterday welcomed the “constructive attitude” expressed in an Arab plan for developing the Jordan River’s water resources in such fashion as to give Israel less than one-fifth of the water available for irrigation purposes.
The Department statement added that “if this represents the thinking of Arab leaders it points the way to major constructive efforts” to solve the problem of dividing the water resources and development of this natural resource on a regional basis.
The plan, which the State Department thinks can become the base for progress to be made when Eric Johnston, President Eisenhower’s personal representative to the Middle East for this problem, confers with Arab leaders in Cairo next month, provides:
Israel would get 200, 000, 000 cubic metres of water annually from the River, while Jordan, Syria and Lebanon would obtain 876, 000, 000 cubic metres. This would be supplemented by 105,000,000 cubic metres for Israel and 277, 000 cubic metres for the Arab states from wadis and wells.
This would be used to irrigate about 50,000 acres of land in Israel and 115,000 acres in the Arab states, as compared to the Johnston plan which would have made possible the irrigation of 93, 000 acres in Israel.
The Arab plan calls for the construction of three canals to carry this irrigation water, one in Israel in the Lake Huleh area and two east and west of the Jordan River and Lake Tiberias southward to the Dead Sea. Both of the canals flanking the Jordan River would cross Israel territory for part of their length.
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