Roll 1 - The Wadi (gulley) Shikma after the passage of the waters - part of the Shikma reservoir filled with water and the pumping station in background - walls of the dam - LS. of the Shikma reservoir which filled out in one night - spillway's construction - pumping station - pipes inside water - engineer takes sample of water at point before entrance to see page site for lab. tests -



Roll 2 - water pouring inside site at a rate of 12.000 cubic metres per hour - open air canal - engineer demonstrate how rapidly water is seeped inside dune sands.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Following saturday's heavy downpour, over a million and half cubic meters of flood waters from the Hebron hills were saved when the MEKOROT (National water planning company) natural reservoir in WADI SHIKMA started operation for the first time near here.

The flood waters till now have flowed along the wadi out to sea. Mekorot blocked up the wadi and by means of 2 pumps conveys the water along pipes and an open canal some 3 kilometres long to the dunes at a site previously arranged where it seeps down to enrich the natural water reserves.

If Mekorot's estimates prove correct, then the natural reservoir will be filled in the next few days with about 3 million cubic metres of water.

An Agriculture spokesman said the following the recent rains, the estimates of drought damage, in that region dropped from 15 million israel pounds to 5 m.