However, a large-scale effort was undertaken by Zionist settlers to drain the swamps, clear dense vegetation, and implement public health measures to defend against and suppress the mosquito population, transforming the previously uninhabitable areas into viable land for agriculture and settlement and eventually leading to the complete eradication of malaria in the region by the 1960s.
By draining swamps and implementing public health measures, they transformed previously unusable land into viable areas for agriculture and settlement, allowing for the growth and development of these communities.
Before the Aliyah, Kligler gathered information about the health issues in the country and acquired experience in the field by joining a delegation for the Study of Yellow Fever in South America.
"[3] Kligler showed the ineffectiveness of previous methods used for the control of malaria in the country, namely, planting of Eucalyptus trees to dry the marshes, and the provision of Quinine prophylaxis for preventing infection.
He studied the prevalence of various Anopheles species, their biology and nesting grounds, tested different methods of eradication and selected the appropriate measures, taking into account their efficiency and cost.
The result, combined with drainage techniques, was the almost total eradication of malaria in the upper Jordan Valley, i.e. the Huleh area, north of the Sea of Galilee.
Kligler wrote that nevertheless, “tremendous progress has been made in the last ten years toward the control and, in many places, the elimination of this scourge.”[12] In a 1936 Memorandum to the United Nations Special Committee, the British Administration reported census numbers and stated that the anti-malaria campaign was a factor in helping to increase the Arab population in Palestine.