Falestinian Water Libel

The once familiar public messages on Israeli prime time TV broadcasts showing images of parched earth, have disappeared from memory despite weeks of low rainfalls in some areas. Israel has two main aquifers; the mountain aquifer and the coastal aquifer.

The mountain aquifer annually provided 300 million cubic meters of water and the coastal aquifer provided 250 million cubic meters. All other aquifers and floodwaters combined once provided 650 million cubic meters of water. Now they are not being used, instead excess water is being pumped back.

The level of the Sea of Galilee, the largest fresh-water lake in Israel, fed by run-off and snow melt from the Golan Heights, Mount Hermon, the Hula Valley, the mountains of  Galilee, and the rain that falls directly on it. The Sea of Galilee was once required to provide 600 million cubic meters of water annually. The country’s only natural water reservoir, once a subject of anxious national discussion on the evening news during the year is no longer broadcast in television weather reports.

Why? What miracle has happened?

From before the establishment of the State, Israel for years suffered from severe water shortage is now self-sufficient after years of dependency on rainfall and subterranean aquifers. Israel has recently completed the final stages of the desalinization program to alleviate the issue of fresh water availability to all its citizens. According to Mekorot's Vice President of Engineering, Avraham Ben-Yosef; "Thanks to our desalination plants along the coast, there is now no lack of water in the country." 

The possibility of desalinating seawater in Israel arose in the professional discourse as early as the 1960s, and was even brought up between the Israeli and the US governments, yet was rejected due to technical and economic reasons. Desalination was first carried out in Eilat 30 years ago. The first master plan that recommended seawater desalination on a large scale was submitted in 1997, but was rejected.

In the wake of a drought in 1998-99, the Israeli government decided to begin practical preparations for seawater desalination. In 2000 a tender was issued for building a desalination plant in Ashkelon, south of Tel-Aviv. In 2001, the winning bid was chosen, and at the same time, the government decided to order Mekorot to build a plant in Ashdod. 

In April 2002, the government adopted the master plan (transitional) for the construction, by 2004, of desalination facilities with a total capacity of 400 million CM. Construction proceeded, yet more slowly than anticipated. 

Today three desalination plants are in operation on the coast: in Ashkelon, Palmachim, and Hadera, with combined output of nearly 300 million CM per year. Not all of the planned desalination plants were built. The companies that were supposed to have built them in Shomrat and at the mouth of the Kishon (both north of Haifa) withdrew from the projects, and the state repossessed their deposits. A third company, which was supposed to build a plant in Ashdod (in addition to Mekorot’s), went bankrupt. In the near future, two more plants are on the agenda: one at Sorek, with a capacity of 150 million cubic meters per year; and a Mekorot plant at Ashdod, with an output capacity of 100 million CM per year. 

Besides these, other plants for desalination of saline water are on the horizon, at capacities of 80 million CM per year; and Mekorot is planning wastewater desalination at a capacity of 13 million cubic meters per year. If all these plans are realized, it can be anticipated that by 2015 the quantity of desalinated seawater will reach 600 million CM; that is, an addition of 50 percent to natural water sources. Barring disappointing surprises, this addition will secure orderly provision and rehabilitation of the reservoirs that have suffered from over drafting for a long period.

Some 80 percent of all domestic water use in Israeli cities is now derived from desalinated water, according Hila Gil, director of the desalination division in Mekorot the Israel Water Authority.

A private company IDE Technologies, has built three of the five plants, which cost between $300 million and $450 million each . The plants are operated, under a complex contract arrangement with the Israeli government which allows for transfer to state ownership after 25 years. Mekorot the national water company of Israel buys the water from the plants for a relatively cheap 58 cents a cubic meter — more than free rainwater, according Miriam Faigon, the director of the solutions department at IDE Technologies. 

The budget for water purchases comes from water charges to consumers. The plants are not subsidized. The Hadera seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant is the largest of its kind in the world. The project was developed as a BOT -build–operate–transfer by a consortium of two Israeli companies: Shikun and Binui, and IDE Technologies.

With the construction of the plants, Israel is no longer reliant on underground water sources and the fresh water reservoir of the Sea of Galilee which are dependent on the annual rainfall. 

The new Israeli desalinization plants produce fresh water whose quality is among the highest in the world, in accordance with international standards.

The Israeli plants, mostly located along the Mediterranean coast, in Ashkelon (August 2005)has a capacity to produce 120m³/ million cubic meters per year, Palmachim has a capacity to produce 45m³/ million cubic meters per year (May 2007), Ashdod has a capacity to produce 100 to 150m³/ million cubic meters per year (2014) and Hadera has a capacity to produce 40,000m³/ million cubic meters per year  (December 2009).
The fifth is in the tourism city of Eilat and it desalinates water from the Red Sea.
Together, they will produce a total of more than 130 billion gallons of potable water a year, with a goal of 200 billion gallons by 2020.

These plants, operate at high energy efficiency and are some of the most cost-efficient in the world, when measured against similar plants in other countries, according to official figures. Water pumped in from the Mediterranean Sea is pushed through rows of multi-layered plastic membranes and, through a process called reverse osmosis, emerges after 90 minutes as tasty drinking water. This desalinated water is produced at the price of 52 cents a cubic meter at the Soreq plant located near the Israeli town of Hadera. The Nahal Sorek plant completed in 2013 has the capacity to produce  624,000 m³/day (26,000 m³/hour). The set price for the cubic meter of water is according to the terms of a government tender, and while actual rates fluctuate according to energy costs, currency exchange and the cost-of-living index, they remain significantly lower than in other nations.

In addition to which, since the desalinization plants work at the same level 24/7 the excess water is being pumped back into the underground aquafier water reserves. 

For the first time in years springs which had dried up during the summer months or during droughts are now flowing with water. 

Mekorot will also increase the amount of water supplied to Jordan via Mekorot. Israel transfers, 55 million cubic meters of water annually to Jordan.. Currently, water is supplied to Jordan via the Beit Zera water storage in the Beit She'an Valley, which receives its water from the Sea of Galilee.

Regarding the "Palestinians"

Last March, the head of the Palestinian Water Authority stated that the Palestinian Authority made the necessary operational preparations to absorb extra water. In 2014 Mekorot provided 57 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinians in the West Bank from the mountain aquifer, the main part of which is in Israeli territory.

In addition to the water supplied by Israel, the Palestinian Authority draws water from an aquifer in its own territory. The amount of water that Israel committed to transferring to the Palestinian Authority within the framework of a water agreement signed in Washington in 1995, as part of the Oslo Accords, was about 30 million cubic meters per year. 

Over the years, the quantity of water supplied by Mekorot increased far beyond the amount agreed upon. During the last five years, over 52 million cubic meters of water were annually supplied to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and 5 million cubic meters of water were annually supplied to the Gaza Strip, nearly 2 twice the agreed-upon amount.

Ben-Yosef added;

 "Israel's national water company Mekorot, in accordance with the Water Authority's guidelines, recently doubled its water supply to the Gaza Strip by 5 million cubic meters. The annual supply will now amount to 10 million cubic meters of water. There is no problem transferring water, the only limitation is the means of water supply. Moreover, we intend to enlarge the water lines to the Palestinian Authority in order to increase the supply."

As to "Water shortages" within the "Palestinian Authority" and the Gaza Strip of Hamas they are the direct result of rampant corruption and the policies that deliberately waste water and destroy the regional water ecology. 

The Palestinians consistently refuse to develop and improve their own significant underground water resources because they are more interested in bad mouthing and bashing Israel in their attempt to reattain what they lost in their self-inflicted "Nachbah" then in supplying suitable drinking water to their own populace. They have received countless amounts of unaccounted funding in world wide "blackmail" payments and building materials which have been stolen or misappropriated to fund the "Armed struggle."

Hamas for example has wasted hundreds of millions in foreign aid money to purchase weaponry and materials to develop a system of tunnels to attack and murder Israeli civilians rather than investing the millions given them to build seawater desalination plants. 

The use of these resources supplied from taxed income of EU residents have been earmarked by EU communities for the purpose of rebuilding the homes and schools destroyed in the constant fighting. This massive corruption and misappropriation is never questioned or criticized. Thousands of Gazans are still homeless, lack electricity, drinking water and proper sewage and waste disposal  despite the free entrance of building materials that pass each day into the Gaza Strip.

Over the years Hamas and the "Falestinian Authority" have done nothing to repair the massive leakage from their municipal water pipes which thieves in Arab communities in the West Bank and Gaza have illegally diverted by running improperly attached lines from them. They continuously refuse to build adequate sewage treatment plants so that they can irrigate land with treated sewage effluents or modern water-saving devices. 

Each year large portions of Gaza are immersed in flood waters and the pro-Falestinian purveyors of lies accuse Israel of intentionally flooding the Gaza Strip. As usual very few delve into the historical facts to understand that there has been an inadequate drainage system or infrastructure to allow for the drainage of the flood waters.Nor has there ever been historically an adequate sewage system in Gaza. 
Since the time of the Ottoman Turkish Empire Gaza was part of  of the "backwater" underdeveloped areas. Very little was ever done since the towns and villages in Gaza were small and neglected. 

During the British mandate period minor civic improvements were made but mainly in the area of larger residential areas such as Rafiach, Khan Unis and Gaza City.
From the time of the Egyptian "Occupation" and control of the Gaza Strip from May of 1948 with the opening of hostilities with the fledgling Jewish State until 1967  the Egyptian civil authorities did very little to improve the infrastructure of water supply and sewage disposal.

During Israel's "Occupation" from 1967 until 1993 the Israeli Military Government made many improvements to the water and sewage infrastructure. The construction of the Shifra Hospital and the completion of  a number of medic clinics together with improved hygienic conditions created a rapid increase in the birth rate together. The success in improved hygiene was reflected in the number of live births and the decrease in infant mortality rates.With the increase in population over strained UNWRA funds were not channeled to pay to improve hygienic conditions in the refugee areas but instead were siphoned off by the Palestinians for other "Resistance Purposes" since it is evident the funds never were used to improve life of those held captive in the camps by the Arab League.
(We see this same issue today within Gaza as Hamas has stolen building materials and supplies for the construction of tunnels and military positions)

Since the Israeli withdrawal in 1993 has not been modernized, nor repaired   This total neglect allows raw sewage to mix with the fresh water from the rainfall that floods the Gaza Strip bringing the threat of disease to the populace.

In deference to the Falestinian's, the Jewish  Kibbutzim, Moshavim and towns in the Negev region adjacent to where the same flooding has occurred have constructed a drainage system to divert and regulate the excess flood waters to reservoirs. The water is thereby reused during the summer or dry months to irrigate through pipes to the nearby fields of wheat. 

Each year large portions of the Gaza Strip are inundated by heavy rains and immersed in flood waters. Each time that this occurs the pro-Falestinian Trolls and purveyors of lies accuse Israel of intentionally flooding the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Maan News Agency made the claim in 2012, as did Middle East Monitor in 2013. BuzzFeed, one of the first non-Israeli and non-Jewish outlets to report the claim as false, quoted a Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity as saying the rumor “...could be traced back more than a decade."

“It is easy to say it is dams, easier than saying that the problem is infrastructure — not having infrastructure, having bad infrastructure, having what little infrastructure Gaza destroyed each time there is war — that is the truth. If we could rebuild Gaza, we could build a system that dealt with these horrible floods. But Gaza is in ruins, there is nowhere for the water to go, and each year it will be the same unless someone helps us.”

This year for example Agence France Presse and Al Jazeera, falsely accused Israel of intentionally opening the "floodgates of a large dam" in the Negev in order to unleash floods upon Gaza’s beleaguered residents. However it was quickly pointed out to publications, blogs and other sites repeating the claim as fact that; “In southern Israel, there are no dams of the type which can be opened.” Once this simple fact was indeed verified  Al Jazeera, officially retracted its story. Here is the Al Jazeera Article retraction dated 25/2/2015:

Editor's note: An earlier version of this page hosted an article which stated that Israel had, without warning, opened a number of dams, which had resulted in a part of Gaza being flooded.
This was false. In southern Israel, there are no dams of the type which can be opened. We apologize for this error. Al Jazeera depends on objective reporting and strives to correct all errors of fact. We are committed to accountability and transparency. We encourage our audience and others to identify and report our mistakes. 

Ah yes you say there are countless YouTube videos purporting to show "raw sewage" being pumped from "Jewish Settlements". Yet when you watch closely you see repeatedly that they fail to actually show that the source is truly from the settlements. 

In reality "ALL Jewish "settlements" are "not only" required by strict Israeli laws regarding water recyclement but they are under severe scrutiny by Israeli Nature Preserve Guards and conservationist groups to make sure that ALL rivers (creeks) are clean.

Hamas and "Falestinian Authority" refuse to bill their own citizens for consumer water usage, leading to enormous waste. The "Falestinian Authority" refuses to upgrade or lay new more economical water pipes. The "Falestinian Authority” claims that Israel is "stealing" their underground water resources when in fact, as I mentioned previously, Israel has discontinued drilling for or using water from the water tables. Within the area of the "Falestinian Authority" there has been continuous contamination from "Falestinian Authority" sewage.

Falestinians routinely drill illegally into Israel’s water resources, and send their sewage flowing into the valleys and streams that not only pollute central Israel but toward the Jordan Valley. 

As recently as March 24,2015 here is a report by a neutral NGO Conservationist group regarding the repeated pollution of the Prat stream from the El Beira sewage works of Ramallah:

"The Green Now Foundation and Nature Protection Society appealed against those responsible - (The Falestinian Authority) demanding to stop the ongoing pollution of the Porat Stream by the waste-water treatment plant at El Beira. There have been repeated requests to stop the pollution and to treat the water purification correctly and prevent severe damage to the environment. Our pleas have not helped. Since every few months (at best) we again get report that untreated sewage waste is continuing to be released into the stream."

There are countless reports of the release of raw sewage from the Ramallah sewage works into the Michmash by several naturalist conservative groups and the Israeli Nature Authority. 

"The raw untreated sewage release from the overflow due to improper repair and construction of adequate sewage treatment facilities has caused the extensive contamination of fresh water sources downstream as well as by endangering bathers and the environment. The natural fauna and animal habitats have been almost irrevocably been damaged as the raw sewage seeps into the earth."

As recently as May 5^th, 2015 there was a report of a mass demonstration in Jerusalem by residents of  Beer Sheva from the stench from the untreated raw sewage being piped into the Beer Sheva stream by the city of Ramallah and Falestinian villages.   

On the other hand the New York Times related that Israel treats 86% of its domestic waste-water, more than any other country in ‎the world. The next closest country is Spain who treats 17%. The USA treats 1%. 

In short, the Falestinian Authority and their Falestinian purveyors of lies continue to feed the propaganda machine that Israel is using water as a weapon against the Arab civilian population. The Falestinians themselves are not interested at all in practical solutions to solve the Palestinian people’s water shortages, but rather in the perpetuation of the shortages and the besmirching of Israel.

Epilogue 

After five years of work, Mekorot has completed the construction of the inverted carrier that will flow desalinated water to the Kinneret. This was published for the first time on the 12th of December 2022. The project will allow for the channeling of desalinated seawater from the desalination plant in Hadera to the national carrier - and from there it will flow through Nahal Zalmon to the Kinneret.

In doing so Israel will no longer be solely dependent on the Kinneret for its water thereby allowing the Kinneret to reach it's maximum so that any excess will flow into the Jordan river to the Dead Sea.