Jordan Valley Development
S1R,—It is obvious that the Clapp mission had to select their four " pilot " development projects for reasons other than the normal economic ones by which such schemes are usually judged. Relief for the refugees was a dominant objettive, and it was natural and proper to look for projects which could be put in hand at once, giving high employment of labour doing simple jobs in an easily administered way. On these criteria, the dam projects proposed for the Wadi Zerqa and Wadi Qilt are quite reasonable.
But a longer-term policy of development must put " value-for-money " as the first requirement. Unfortunately the Clapp report contains no recognition of the fundamental difference between the factors governing the short-term (relief)'projects and the longer-term (" value-for-money ") works which should follow. On the contrary it assumes that longer- term development should follow the same sort of lines as the short-' term projects. They are, in fact, called " pilot " projects. The proposal specifically is that these projects should serve as examples which the Government of Jordan should adopt as patterns for future projects of their own. On a " value-for-money " basis, these dam projects are quite the most expensive of all methods of getting new water onto the land, and to present them as patterns for a longer-term policy is to give the worst possible advice.
Someone sometime (the new Agency is the obvious body to do it) should make a list of all the methods of getting " new " water on to the .land. There are half a dozen or moskr-gravity diversion canals, lining of existing canals to save seepage loss, low-lift and high-lift pumping from the Jordan, pumping from wells, development of springs ; and .terracing and afforestation which, in principle, are simply means for making use of water which would otherwise escape. These methods should be costed in terms of the price per cubic metre of new water so gained and put onto the land. *bey should be listed in order of cost. The proper basic policy will then be to start with the cheapest and work down the scale. Dams will come right away down at the bottom—if they even get on to the list at all. Obviously there will be political and other reasons which must also be taken into account and will affect the order of priority in the list. But the fundamental principle should be to depart as little as possiblekom the strict " value-for-money " order of procedure.—Yours faithfully, M. G. IONIDES. 4a Launceston Place, W.8.
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