An appeal to 100,000 city dwellers to settle on the land in order to help increase Israel’s agricultural output was voiced here last night by Finance Minister Levi Eshkol, addressing the formal opening of the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal drive here. Other speakers reported that the Keren Hayesod has financed the establishment of 310 settlements in Israel since the creation of the Jewish State.
Plans for a tenfold increase in the use of sub-surface water in Israel within three years were announced here by the Keren Hayesod, which is a partner in the Mekoroth water company, Israel’s major irrigation enterprise. The plans, which are expected to cost $32,000,000 and 20,000,000 Israeli pounds, call for increasing the basic water allotment to agricultural family units to permit a fourfold increase in land under irrigation from the present five dunams to 20 dunams. Sub-surface water accounts for 70 percent of the water consumption of the Jewish State.
The discovery of a fresh water spring in the area east of Beersheba which will provide an adequate supply of drinking water for miners in the region and road workers on the Beersheba-Sdom road, was reported today. The spring was discovered by a geologist, Dr. A. Skidelsky, who while touring the region, found wet sand under a huge rock. Upon his instructions the stone was removed and some sand cleared away before the spring was unearthed. This is the first fresh water source found in the Great Crater region of the Negev.
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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.
