Israel’s 2013/2014 winter was the second driest winter ever, after the winter of 1954-55, according to the Israel Meteorological Service. The north received one-third to one-half as much rain as normal; the south got a bit more, but the central region suffered a severe drought with some areas getting only 10% of the normal average rainfall. Yet Israel is not worried, and the reaction to this was… nothing!
Dry Winters No Problem for Israel Due to Desalination
Any other country would be scrambling to access water resources for drinking water and for other uses, as would Israel have been a mere decade ago, but today dry winters are no problem for Israel due to desalination. Desalination has opened the door to transformation in the region in ways that were totally unthinkable a mere few years ago.
Israel’s aggressive desalination plan has transformed the oft parched land into what is now possibly the most hydrated country in the area. Avraham Tenne, head of the desalination division of Israel’s Water Authority said, “We have all the water we need, even in the year which was the worst year ever regarding precipitation. This is a huge revolution.â€
According to Tenne, Israel has managed to change things around via on-going conservation efforts which see almost 90% of wastewater being recycled for agricultural use, and an aggressive desalination policy. Five desalination plants have been constructed since 2005 and this has resulted in around 35% of Israel’s drinking water coming from desalination. This percentage is expected to rise to in excess of 40% in 2015 and to hit around 70% by 2050.
The Sorek desalination plant near Tel Aviv produces roughly 20% of Israel’s municipal water from the nearby Mediterranean Sea. The advanced membranes in the plant remove the salt from the water, producing fresh drinking water, and pump the salty discharge back into the sea. According to Avshalom Felber, chief executive of IDE Technologies, the plant’s operator, Sorek is the “largest and most advanced” desalination plant in the world. Sorek currently produces 624,000 cubic meters of drinking daily.
With figures like this it is no wonder that dry winters are no problem for Israel due to desalination. It is also hoped that in the future Israel could provide more water resources to other countries in the region, which would go a long way to solve regional water problems and prevent “water wars†in the future.
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