Upon the notice, dated 8 September and numbered 103, sent by the Waqfs’ Accounting regarding the change of the course of the general sewage passing near the mosque in the village of Silvân and the decision, dated 17 September 1904 and numbered 754, taken by the Sanjak Administrative Council behind this notice
It was previously considered that the current status of the said sewage would pollute the air due to its proximity to the city and the village of Silvân as well, and it was understood that, for moving it away from 1,300 meters, i.e., up to the spot known by the name of Ayn’ul-luze, the necessary expenses would approximately add up to 101,600 piasters. As the town of Jerusalem is increasingly developing and expanding thanks to the His Royal Highness Sultan, it has turned out that it is necessary to establish the said sewage, which cannot now be done due to the insufficiency of municipal incomes, and also new roads, pavements, sewers and other reconstruction works in various places in order to facilitate traffic inside and outside the city. In the letter, dated 12 September 1884 and numbered 24, sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs following the decision by the State Council regarding the financing of the approximate amount of 3 million 15 thousand piasters necessary for these items, a permission was given to take an entrance tax for 12 years from the cereals, vegetables, wood, coal and other packs of merchandise brought to Jerusalem. As the term of this tax has expired, our council presented a notice on 28 April 1900 for renewing this tax for 15 years and relegated the matter to the Sanjak Administrative Council. However, due actions have not been taken in respect thereof yet and as no other financing could be found, the said sewage course has remained unchanged. For the prevention of the damage by means of maximally changing the sewage course at the end of the said mosque construction, some operations and excavations were recently realized there, which all costed an approximate amount of 2,000 piasters. During these excavations, an old course in need of repair was explored, which was away from the said mosque; however, it was composed of only 300 meters, so it was not considered to be adequate for fulfilling the objective. Nevertheless, until a financial source is found for the high amount of cost necessitated by the change of the said sewage in line with its previous inspection, it was considered necessary that, in order to prevent for the time being the damage in the vicinity of the mosque, it be moved off at least 50-60 meters from the place named Birayûb through an open course following the old course explored before. Thereupon, the work in this copy was inspected and it was understood from the hereby inspection report by the municipal engineer that it required a cost of 6870 piasters at the rate of daric-i bender. As there is not only any provision in our council’s budget regarding the expenditure of the said sum, but also there is not much income in this year for non-budgetary expenditure, it has been considered that the said sewage be repaired and changed on loan to be covered from next year’s incomes. It is still appropriate to relegate the matter to the Sanjak Administrative Council for negotiation and decision. The 29th of Aylûl (1)320 (12th of October 1904).
