HOW JERUSALEM GETS ITS WATER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 91, 11 January 1919, Page 8

HOW JERUSALEM GETS ITS WATER

AFTER 4QO YEARS OP TURKISH ;.. PROCRASTINATION. ;; '•. In a recent dispatch Mr.' W. T. Mas-i soy, representative of, tlio British Press " with the Expeditionary" Force in vPalestine, gives an account, of ail engineering, triumph accomplished by the Royal ]3nginers in providing Jerusalem with a' new water supply in-, the , space of two months, he dispatch is as follows:— . . "One of the biggest blots upon ; the v Turkish ; Government. of the . city ' was the total failure' to provide an* adequate water supply. What they could not, or would not, do in their rule of . 400 years His Majesty's Royal. Engineers accomplished in a little more .than v two months. The. picturesque water-carrier is passing into the limbo of forgotten things. ... . . '■ ' "For its 1 water Jerusalem used to' rely mainly upon the winter rainfall to fill its cisterns, Practically every house had its underground reservoir. But many had fallen into disrepair, and rnos.t, of them required thorough cleaning. To supplement tho.cistern supply, the Mosque of Omaru' reservoir halved'" with Bethlehem the water which flowed from' Solomon's Pool' down an- aqueduct 1 constructed "by' Roman ;enginers under Herod before the Saviour was born. ;.TKis was not nearly suilicient, nor was it so constant, a supply as that provided by our Army engineers. They went farther atiekL They found 1 a group of spring' heads in an absolutely clean gathering ground on the hills yielding some 14,000 gallons an liour, and this water, which was running to waste, is lifted to tho top of a hill from which it flows by •' gravity through a long pipe line into Jerusalem. Supplies run direct to the hospitals, 1 and at stand-pipes all ever the city, the inhabitants take as much as they desire. The water consumption oftlie people has become ten times what' it was last year. "Tho scheme does (not 6top at putting up standpipes for those who will-fetch the water. - The water level of the cis- , terns is now, and ns they are getting emptied, the authorities aTranga for refilling them on tho one condition that ■they are first thoroughly cleaned out and put in order. A householder has merely to apply the Military. Governor for Water, and a sanitary officer inspects the cistern, orders it to be cleansed, and sees that it is done, i the Department of Public Health grants a certificate that the cistern- is clean/and the engineers run a pipe to it, and it is filled, mr matter . what its capacity may be. ; Two cisterns were recently replenished with be-tween-00,000 and 70,000 gallons of water from tho hills. . , "The installation of the water supply .was a triumph:for the Royal Engineers. A. preliminary investigation and survey of the ground was;made on February 11, rind a 6cheme was submitted four days later. Owing to tho shortage of 1 transport, and abnormally bad weather, work could.not be commenced till April 12. Many, miles of pipe line had to be aid, and-ft. powerful pumping plant ertcted, but water was being delivered to Hid people of Jerusalem. on" June 18. T'here hits not been a 6toppago or' a hitch." '>". '