| Show THIRSTY JERUSALEM prom from the liahona Lla hona jerusalem today with its inhabitants depends almost entirely on rain tor for its water supply the rainfall averaging about thirty seven inches a year water thus collected and stored is good as long as roofs and cisterns are kept clean in the houses of the wealthier classes these cisterns are arc large enough to store nn an ample amount of water with the poorer people the reverse is the case most of the cisterns of their houses are small and the houses are often so overcrowded over crowded that frequently long before the summer Is over the water has given out and a i supply has to be purchased at high prices from neighboring cisterns among the poorer jewish settlers on the outskirts of jerusalem few are able to own their own cisterns and large ones are built generally by charity funds tor for a common water supply in many baies cases they are filled with surface water and the unsanitary elements with which the water thus collected is impregnated are held responsible for a large percentage of the fevers and other diseases prevalent toward the end of the dry season this same condition of the water supply a appears to prevail among all tile the poorer classes of the city when there is a shortage of rain a critical state of affairs ensues and at suck such time lime most water is used at various times since the days of ct king solomon efforts have been made to secure a water supply on which the city could depend about seven and one half miles to the south a little ty by west ol of jerusalem on oil the carriage road to hebron are these enormous reservoirs known as solomons pools these were constructed in the bed of the valley across which heavy walls were thrown end cemented and are large enough to contain gallons of water they were filled durin during i the rainy seas season on with water from the surrounding hills and this was all augmented by the inflow of a small spring a little higher in the valley known as the sealed fountain and some other small springs from these pools there was a masonry aqueduct said to been the work of 0 solomon which wf idinea ra ade 41 carried can led the water to the temple in Jerus jerusalem ilem at one point this conduit went thru a mountain by a tunnel in the sixteenth century of our era the edans remodeled this aqueduct by replacing the open trough with pottery pipes portions of which are still in use in tho the first century the romans probably under pontius pilate began to carry into execution a most ambitious scheme tor for bringing i a large water supply juto into the holy city but they seemingly were never able to finish this task their source of supply was ain arrouo a large fountain which is also on the road to hebron and about twice as far from jerusalem as the pools or solomon whose water was mas led into the middle of solomons pools and also dir bir ed delej in wadi el blyar whose waters were led through a large conduit through channels cut in the rock and through a tun nel to a point above the pools of solomon these waters were led to the city by two aqueducts made of solid blocks of stone about three feet square and two feet thick by a hole fifteen inches in diameter each block was made with a shoulder on one side and a flange on the other by which they fitted into one another and were nere cemen cemented teil together pa part r t of this ancient work Is still to be seen but a number of the stona blocks have been carried away as relics in 1901 there was a serious shortage in rainfall and water had to be hauled by train from a small spring a few miles down the line to meet the pressing demand this lack of water bloused the authorities to take some steps and resulted soon after in the connecting of the city with the sealed fountain by means of a tour four inch pipe from its source to be bethlehem th lehem the old aqueduct attributed to king solomon and repaired by thoa arabs was utilized and from bethlehem to the city iron pipes were employed the tunnel above mentioned serving as a kind ot of accumulating reservoir this water which is but a trifle compared with the cites needs supplies some fountains where it Is free to the poor most of it however is consumed at the military barracks during the first session or of the new parliament in nople a concession was granted to 0 o the municipal ity of jerusalem to appropriate the hides ot of all animals slaughtered in jerusalem as a tax to produce a fund with which a water supply could be secured the municipality proposed to make a loan large enough to enable the city to lay a large pipe from ain ar roub and to repay the loan and interest thereon in each year from the tax on hides and the money re received from the sale of the water A bremen firm hearing of this project sent its director to look over the situation he made a proposition that his firm would put in a plant to pump the aln ain farrah water into jerusalem at its own expense piping the water into each house and charging for the same francs one franc equals cents per cubic metre or to say one paying in advance 1500 francs an agreement would be made to give one cubic metre per day for thirty years also seventy alvo cubic metres of water would be allowed the municipality free for drink drinking in g fountains and street sprinkling any further amount required by the municipality to be supplied at half price at the end of thir thirty ty years rears the complete water works were to 0 o be handed over to the municipality while the price named seemed high the general public feeling appeared to lie be in favor of accepting this proposition rather than to have the municipality carry out tile the first project of build ng lug the water works and levying a tax to meet the hie indebtedness the matter Is is now in he be hands of a committee named by the governor consisting ot of the mayor one member of the city council two members of the chamber of commerce two engineers of 0 the city and public works and the mufti or religious head and bids have been 80 solicited from all sources harpers weekly |
