Maybe the cropland is watered by a spring, but if the town is along the shores of the Lake of Galilee, the lake's waters might be stagnant, especially in the marshes.Guiseppe wrote: Why are these waters ''stagnant'' ?
For a while I lived in Florida along the Indian Rivers and the Banana River, both of which were salt water estuaries where I lived, and the stench was sometimes unbearable. The "Sea" of Galilee is not salt water, but an inland lake. Such lakes in the US, especially in our Western half, often have pretty stagnant waters with all sorts of dead fishes and clumps of algae and seaweed washing ashore. I am not referring to the Salt Lake in Utah, either, which does not have dead fish (they cannot tolerate the salt concentration, so none live there) but it does have "brine shrimp" and IIRC, seaweed of some kind, by the bucket.
DCH (back to work, boss!)