Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Plate 12.2
Traditional
irrigated agriculture along the
Zayandel River, to the west
of Isfahan, Iran.
Figure 12.2
World growth of
irrigated land.
1978. Since then, the irrigated area has fluctuated
slightly from census to census, but the high value
of 1978 has never been reached again (Figure
12.3).
Irrigation was also used both as a political and
strategic tool by the government of Israel
following the establishment of the state in 1948
(Shuval 1980; Lonergan and Brooks 1994). The
policy of the government was to spread Jewish
settlement over as much of the land of Palestine as
was possible so that sabotage and infiltration
activity by dispossessed Arabs would have a
minimal impact on the new state. The way in
which this was to be achieved was by the
widespread development of irrigated agriculture
and the establishment of rural settlements, perhaps
the most famous of which are the
kibbutz
and the
moshav.
The key element with this early policy was
the pumped well, which permitted the
exploitation of the coastal aquifer system. Over-
pumping over two decades led to falling water
tables and the landward penetration of sea water
