W.T. Massey - How Jerusalem Was Won. Allenby's Campaign in Palestine
picturesque, though usually unclean, water carrier is passing into the limbo of forgotten things, and his
energies are being diverted into other channels. The germs that swarmed in his leathern water bags will
no longer endanger the lives of the citizens, and the deadly perils of stagnant cistern water have been to a
large extent removed.
For its water Jerusalem used to rely mainly upon the winter rainfall to fill its cisterns. Practically every
house has its underground reservoir, and it is estimated that if all were full they would contain about
360,000,000 gallons. But many had fallen into disrepair and most, if not the whole of them, required
thorough cleansing. One which was inspected by our sanitary department had not been emptied for
nineteen years. To supplement the cistern supply the Mosque of Omar reservoir halved with Bethlehem
the water which flowed from near Solomon's Pools down an aqueduct constructed by Roman engineers
under Herod before the Saviour was born. This was not nearly sufficient, nor was it so constant a supply
as that provided by our Army engineers. They went farther afield. They found a group of spring-heads in
an absolutely clean gathering ground on the hills yielding some 14,000 gallons an hour, and this water
which was running to waste is lifted to the top of a hill from which it flows by gravity through a long
pipe-line to Jerusalem, where a reservoir has been built on a high point on the outskirts of the city.
Supplies of this beautiful water run direct to the hospitals, and at standpipes all over the city the
inhabitants take as much as they desire. The water consumption of the people became ten times what it
was in the previous year, and this fact alone told how the boon was appreciated.
The scheme did not stop at putting up standpipes for those who fetched the water. A portion of the
contents of the cisterns was taken for watering troop horses in the spring - troops were not allowed to
drink it. The water level of these cisterns became very low, and as they got emptied the authorities
arranged for refilling them on the one condition that they were first thoroughly cleansed and put in order.
The British administration would not be parties to the perpetuation of a system which permitted the
fouling of good crystal water. A householder had merely to apply to the Military Governor for water, and
a sanitary officer inspected the cistern, ordered it to be cleansed, and saw that this was done; then the
Department of Public Health gave its certificate, and the engineers ran a pipe to the cistern and filled it,
no matter what its capacity. Two cisterns were replenished with between 60,000 and 70,000 gallons of
sparkling water from the hills in place of water heavily charged with the accumulation of summer dust on
roofs, and the dust of Jerusalem roads, as we had sampled it, is not as clean as desert sand.
The installation of the supply was a triumph for the Royal Engineers. In peace times the work would
have taken from one to two years to complete. A preliminary investigation and survey of the ground was
made on February 14, and a scheme was submitted four days later. Owing to the shortage of transport
and abnormally bad weather work could not be commenced till April 12. Many miles of pipe line had to
be laid and a powerful pumping plant erected, but water was being delivered to the people of Jerusalem
on the 18th of June. Other military works have done much for the common good in Palestine, but none of
them were of greater utility than this. Mahomedans seeing bright water flow into Jerusalem regarded it as
one of the wonders of all time. It is interesting to note that the American Red Cross Society, which sent a
large and capable staff to the Holy Land after America came into the war, knew of the lack of an
adequate water supply for Jerusalem, and with that foresight which Americans show, forwarded to Egypt
for transportation to Jerusalem some thousand tons of water mains to provide a water service. When the
American Red Cross workers reached the Holy City they found the Army's plans almost completed, and
they were the first to pay a tribute to what they described as the 'civilising march of the British Army.'
Those who watched the ceaseless activities of the Public Health Administration were not surprised at the
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