The second phase of the Huleh reclamation project was officially initiated yesterday with the signing of a $2,000,000 contract between the Jewish National Fund and the Construction Aggregates Corporation of Chicago.
Under terms of the agreement, the American firm will eliminate the twisting gullies now running throughout the swamp area replacing them with one deep drainage canal. It will also build a dike covering more than 3, 000 acres north of the Huleh. The dike is intended to prevent flooding of the Huleh area and at the same time to keep the valuable peat deposits in the area from drying out. The first phase of the work–widening and deepening the Jordan River bed–was completed by an Israeli company, but the Israeli contractors lacked the technical equipment, such as floating dredges, to handle the second phase of the job.
(In Dallas, Texas, the Southwest Region of the Zionist Organization of America adopted a resolution at a special conference to redeem 2, 500 dunams of land in the Huleh through the Jewish National Fund.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.