The United Nations Special Fund today reported that it has signed an agreement with Israel to contribute $489,000 toward Israel’s three-year program to explore the feasibility of using subterranean water-bearing beds as reservoirs for some portion of the vast quantities of storm water from winter floods that now escape into the sea.
The UN contribution will be used chiefly for the purchase of specialized equipment, for the training of Israeli scientists and for foreign advisors. The total cost of Israel’s program is $2,173,300.
Chief aim of the research is to discover the chemical changes involved in large-scale underground storage of water. Israel has made numerous attempts in the past to impound rainwater flowing down water-course during the short rainy season in winter, in an attempt to collect it before it flows into the sea. A number of dams have been constructed at great expense but the storage basins that they created have usually been of little value owing to seepage through the ground and large-scale evaporation at the surface.
At present Israel is exploiting almost her total conventional sources of water, ground water, springs and wells. Further water sources must be found to extend the country’s arable areas. The findings of the current program will, as they become available, prove of benefit to numerous countries designated as arid or semi-arid.
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