"THE J.V.A. ARGUMENT"
Stfi,—Mr. Ionides' interesting article on the J.V.A. leaves out some of the data which are needed to enable an irrigation engineer to appreciate his arguments. Taking such figures as he gives, we find the water pro- vided is 6o cubic metres per second, or rather less than zoo million cubic metres per annum. The first thing we want to know is the duty of water, i.e., how much water does each acre require per annum for the best crop- rotation. If we assume the land is not too heavy, and that there is a reliable rainfall, each atre may be taken as requiring not more than ',ow cubic metres per annum of stored water. This is one extreme, and means the system might protect 200,000 acres. The other extreme would be heavy soil with an unreliable rainfall, and therefore taking much irrigation water. In this case each acre might require 5,000 cubic metres per annum, so that only 40,000 acres could be protected. The mean of these two figures is probably not far off the truth ; i.e., about 120,000 acres might liedeveloped. If the cultivation is good and good" money crops (citrus, cotton, Szc) are grown and there is a concomitant
development of manufactures and commerce, this area might support four people per acre or a total of 480,000. With the worst conditions, one person per acre could be supported, say 120,000. Again, taking the mean between worst and best we come to the conclusion that ;his scheme of 6o cubic metres per second might support about 300,000 people. The division between Palestine and Transjordania is chiefly a political matter. No data, technical or political, seem to be available to form the basis of an opinion on this point.
A consideration of the alleged cost shows that sixty million pounds are required to develop 120,000 acres, making L500 per acre. Even with the maximum development of 200,000 acres the figure is L300, which is still fantastic. This is not a big scheme, and such adjectives as " vast," "colossal" are entirely out of place. The proposal is for a small reservoir (one-fiftieth the size of the Aswan Reservoir) on a small river to develop a small area. The whole thing (including power station, if any) should not cost more than about six million pounds, one-tenth of the sum in discussion. The figure of L60,000,000 for providing zoo million cubic metres of water per annum and developing rzo,000 acres is out of all proportion to anything that such schemes have cost anywhere else iti the world. It could only be reached if there were quite unusual physical difficulties to be overcome.—Yours faithfully, F. NEWHOUSE. The Athenaeum, S.W.
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