Bracing For ‘Severe’ Water Shortage

Low rainfall, high consumption has all three aquifers approaching dangerous ‘Red Line.’

Since 2004, the Kinneret’s water level has been dropping steadily. Only twice since 1931, when record keeping first began, has precipitation been this low this long. getty images

by Michele Chabin
Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem — Most years, Purim in Israel is so chilly that parents dress their children in very warm costumes to ward off the late-winter chill and the almost inevitable rain.
This year, holiday merry-makers slathered on the sunscreen as temperatures soared to over 100 degrees in Tel Aviv and the mid-90s elsewhere.
While most Israelis considered the summery weather a welcome gift, officials charged with monitoring Israel’s water supply spent the holiday worrying.
This winter’s relatively low level of rainfall, coming after four consecutive winters with low precipitation, will lead to a severe water shortage in the coming year, officials at the country’s Water Authority warn.
Last week Water Authority chairman Uri Shani told a Knesset committee dealing with the level of Lake Kinneret, the

Sea of Galilee — one of the country’s three water sources — that the lake will likely dip below the Red Line, the designated danger point, sometime in July. Once this happens, he said, groundwater could become salty, endangering the supply. By December, he added, channeling water from the lake could become an impossible feat, if the water dips below the pumps’ reach.
Since 2004, Shani said, the Kinneret’s water level has been dipping steadily. Only twice since 1931, when record keeping first began, has precipitation been this low this long. Adding to the problem, the chairman said, was the seepage of gasoline from gas stations and storage facilities into reservoirs and ground water, as well as dust particles from sandstorms that limited the amount of rainfall.
During an interview with The Jewish Week, Uri Schor, the Water Authority’s spokesperson, said Israel faces “a very severe shortage.” All three of the country’s water sources, the Kinneret, the Mountain Aquifer and the Coastal Aquifer, are already close to the Red Line, Schor said. “This winter’s rainfall was the worst in 10 years,” he noted.
Though low precipitation is the main factor contributing to the drought, Schor said, the growth in population and the increase in demand — which he linked to Israelis’ “improved quality of life” — are only making matters worse. On average, individual Israelis consume 160 liters of water per day, including the water they use to irrigate their ever-expanding gardens.
Environmental groups blame much of the region’s water shortage on commercial agriculture.
“Agriculture accounts for just 2 percent of Israel’s GDP [gross domestic product], yet it utilizes 30 percent of the fresh [drinking] water and 50 percent of total water resources in the country,” said Gideon Bromberg, Israel director of Friends of the Earth Middle East. “That’s the heart of the problem.”
Bromberg said “it isn’t surprising” that Israel and its neighbors are experiencing a drought.
“We go through a period of drought every seven years on average and it’s getting worse with climate change. Yet we’re managing our water resources as if we were living in northern Europe or North America, where water resources aren’t nearly as limited.” Bromberg is incensed that Israeli farmers produce bananas, mangos, avocadoes and citrus fruits like world-famous Jaffa oranges.
“These are water guzzlers and have no place being grown in a semi-arid region,” he says.
Ultimately, Bromberg said, it is the government’s responsibility to crack down on improper water use, something it has been slow to do, he believes.
“We could be doing a great deal more to conserve water at the domestic level as well but the government incentives aren’t in place,” he said. “In Australia the government has woken up and subsidizes water harvesting in households. Basically, individual homeowners capture the water that falls on their roof and use it to flush their toilet, to run their washing machine, to wash their dishes. In other countries, in cities like Las Vegas, watering lawns is no longer permitted.”
Israel’s Water Authority, Bromberg charges, “seems to lack both the political will and the authority to enforce” existing laws.
Schor insists the Water Authority is doing all it can, given its finite resources.
“We’re working to increase fines, both against municipalities and individuals,” he says, noting that cities and towns can incur a 1,000-shekel fine for ignoring water regulations, while improperly watering a garden, for example, can cost a homeowner NIS 250.
On April 1 the Water Authority plans to unveil a comprehensive water-saving campaign to encourage the public “to think about every drop before using a drop.”
“We want people to know that it takes 200 liters of water to water a 200-square-meter garden for five minutes, so if you water for five minutes more than needed, you waste 200 liters,” Schor said. “A dripping tap wastes 60 liters a day. Every minute less you spend in a shower is a savings of 10 liters. We want people to soap their cutlery and brush their teeth before turning on the tap. We want people to be mindful.”
Already, Schor said, the amount of potable water provided to farmers for agricultural use was halved during the past year. Though it is forbidden to hose down a car in Israel, or to use a garden sprinkler at all between November and May (and only between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. the rest of the year), it’s not uncommon to see citizens doing both.
“If people cut down on their water consumption, it’s because they want to save money, not because they’re aware of wasting water,” said Tzvia Adiv, a nanny, during a visit to a Jerusalem playground. Adiv, who immigrated to Israel from Yemen in 1949, recalled how her family initially lived in a tent and had to carry buckets of water for cooking, cleaning and drinking, since there was no indoor plumbing. “Today, we take water for granted,” Adiv said, glancing at the playground’s greenery.
As worrisome as the situation is, it could be much worse, Schor insists. “We already have two working desalinization plants, one in Ashkelon, the other in Palmachim. Without them, we’d be in much worse shape.”
By the end of 2009, a desalinization plant now under construction in Hadera will increase the supply of drinking water, as will two more plants that are slated to be completed in 2013.
Combined, the plants should cleanse 500 million cubic meters of water annually.
“In the meantime,” Schor said, “well just have to find a way to make up the shortfall.”

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