Water supply and sanitation in Israel

Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... : Water and Sanitation

Data
Water coverage (broad definition)	100%
Sanitation coverage (broad definition)	100%
Continuity of supply (%)	Very high
Average urban water use (l/c/d)	137
Average urban domestic water and sewer bill for 20m3	249.60 NIS (Dec. 2010)
Share of household metering	Very high
Non-revenue water Non-revenue water Non revenue water is water that has been produced and is “lost” before it reaches the customer. Losses can be real losses or apparent losses . High levels of NRW are detrimental to the financial viability of water utilities, as well to the quality of water itself...	n/a \|-	Share of collected wastewater treated	over 90%
Annual investment in WSS	n/a
Share of self-financing by utilities	high
Share of tax-financing	n/a
Share of external financing	n/a
Institutions
Decentralization to municipalities	Yes (for water distribution and sanitation)
National water and sanitation company	Mekorot (Bulk water supplier)
Water and sanitation regulator	Governmental Authority of Water and Sewerage
Responsibility for policy setting	Minister of National Infrastructures
Sector law	Water Law 1959, amended most recently in 2006
Number of service providers	1 Bulk water supplier 76 cities 144 local councils 53 regional councils

Water supply and sanitation in Israel are intricately linked to the historical development of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Because rain falls only in the winter, and largely in the northern part of the country, irrigation and water engineering

Hydraulic engineering

This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...

is vital to the country's economic survival and growth. Large scale projects to direct water from rivers and reservoirs in the north, make optimal use of groundwater, and reclaim flood overflow and sewage have been undertaken. The largest such project was a national water distribution system called the National Water Carrier, completed in 1964, flowing from the country's biggest freshwater lake, the Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias , is the largest freshwater lake in Israel, and it is approximately in circumference, about long, and wide. The lake has a total area of , and a maximum depth of approximately 43 m...

, to the northern Negev

Negev

The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...

desert, through huge channels, pipes and tunnels.

Israel's water demand today outstrips available conventional water resources, even in a year of average rainfall. Thus Israel relies on unconventional water resources, including reclaimed water

Reclaimed water

Reclaimed water or recycled water, is former wastewater that is treated to remove solids and certain impurities, and used in sustainable landscaping irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers...

and desalination

Desalination

Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...

. A particularly long drought in 1998-2002 prompted the government to promote large-scale seawater desalination, a decision that is being implemented, albeit with some delays.

New laws in the Israeli water and sanitation

Sanitation

Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...

sector include the 2001 Water and Sewerage Corporations Law and a 2006 amendment to the Water Law which created a General Authority of Water and Sewage.

History

The modern history of water and sanitation in Israel can be distinguished into various phases. During a development phase until the late 1960s the emphasis was on expanding conventional water supply, with little attention to demand management. The development phase was followed by more emphasis on water reuse and demand management in the 1970s and 80s. The 1990s witnessed the settlement of water disputes with Jordan and a temporary agreement with the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo Peace Process. Finally, in 2000 a prolonged drought and concerns about the impacts of climate change led the government to adopt a massive seawater desalination program, which has since then been implemented, albeit with some significant delays.

Ancient history

In ancient Israel, water was a precious resource. Herod

Herod

Herod is a name used of several kings belonging to the Herodian Dynasty of the Roman province of Judaea:...

ordered his engineers to build aqueducts to transport water to Caesarea, then the second largest city in the country after Jerusalem. They devised a system that allowed water to flow without pumping from the springs near Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel

Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...

. Seven aqueducts were constructed at this time, vestiges of which can still be seen today.

Development phase (1937-1969)

Because the coastal plain of historical Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

had few water resources

Water resources

Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....

, Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...

already envisioned the transfer of water from the Jordan River to the coast for irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

and drinking water

Drinking water

Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...

supply. In order to realize that Zionist vision, the water company Mekorot

Mekorot

Mekorot is the national water company of Israel and the country's top agency for water management.Mekorot was founded in 1937. It supplies 90% of Israel's drinking water and 80% of its water supplies. The company runs 3,000 installations throughout the country for water supply, water quality,...

was created in 1937, more than a decade before the creation of the state of Israel. In the first two decades of Israel's existence, substantial financial resources were dedicated to create the National Water Carrier, a complex water supply system including the Shiloach Pipeline along the Burma Road

Burma Road (Israel)

The Israeli "Burma Road" was a makeshift bypass road between the general vicinity of kibbutz Hulda and Jerusalem. It was built by Israeli forces headed by general Mickey Marcus during the 1948 Siege of Jerusalem...

to Jerusalem built during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, a first pipeline to the Negev in 1955 and the transfer of water from the Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee

in 1964. Furthermore Mekorot began a Rain Enhancement

Cloud seeding

Cloud seeding, a form of intentional weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud...

program in 1961, increasing rainfall by 13%-18%. Also, a Brackish Water

Brackish water

Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty"...

Pipeline was completed in 1965 to divert brackish ground water from infiltrating the Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee

Promotion of the use of reclaimed water (1969-1980s)

In 1969 the Shafdan wastewater treatment plant south of Tel Aviv was completed to treat approximately 130 million cubic meters of wastewater per year for reuse in agriculture. However, wastewater from other cities and towns remained largely untreated. In 1970 there was a cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

outbreak because of illegal irrigation of salad with untreated wastewater. This gave rise to major investments in wastewater treatment under the National Sewerage Plan, which emphasized the reuse of treated wastewater. In 1984 the Kishon wastewater treatment plant was completed in Northern Israel, It provides 20 million cubic meters of treated wastewater per year for agricultural use in the fertile Jezreel Valley

Jezreel Valley

-Etymology:The Jezreel Valley takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the southern edge of the valley, though some scholars think that the name of the city originates from the name of the clan which founded it, and whose existence is mentioned in...

, maximizing distribution potential during high-demand periods.

Agreements on water sharing (1995)

The 1995 Interim Agreement

Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also known as the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, the Interim Agreement, Oslo 2, Oslo II, and Taba, was a key and complex agreement governing several aspects of the Palestinian territories of Gaza Strip and the West Bank.-History:It...

as part of the Oslo Peace Process provided certain quantities of water to the Palestinians, but prevents them from drilling any new wells in the Mountain Aquifer. The surface water of the Jordan River remains disputed with Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

and the Palestinians. Only with Jordan Israel was able to reach an agreement on the sharing of water resources in 1995 as part of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty.

Seawater desalination since 1997

In 1997, the first reverse osmosis desalination plant in Israel opened in Eilat. In 2002, under the impact of drought, the Government approved the construction of large seawater desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast. These installations would supply 305 million m3/yr of desalinated water by the year 2010 and 500 million m3/yr by 2015. By mid-2008 two of the new plants with a capacity of 130 million m3/yr were in operation.

In parallel to the desalination program the cabinet also decided to promote water savings activities that could reduce household water use by at least 10 percent.

Impact of Climate Change and further infrastructure expansion (2007 onwards)

In July 2007 Water Commissioner Uri Shani warned about a decline in rainfall, exacerbating Israel's water crisis. "The drop in water supply derives from atmospheric contamination, which affects cloud composition and causes a drop in rainfall levels. Every year we record less water entering Lake Kinneret in the winter. Another factor in the drop in water supply is contamination of the coastal aquifer, which reduces the amount of water that can be pumped out."

In 2007 Mekorot inaugurated its advanced Central Filtration Plant at the company's Eshkol

Eshkol Regional Council

The Eshcol Regional Council is a regional council in the north-western Negev, in Israel's Southern District. The regional council's territory lies midway between Ashkelon and Beersheba, bounded on the west by the Gaza Strip while the eastern border abuts the territory of the Bnei Shimon Regional...

facility. Built at a cost of more than $100 million, the sophisticated plant has annual filtering capacity in excess of 500 million cubic meters per year. It is the largest plant of its type in Israel and one of the largest in the world

In 2008 Mekorot is in the process of laying the "fifth pipeline to Jerusalem" to be completed around 2012. The line will double the quantity of water to the city and surrounding communities and provide 150 million cubic meters annually, including desalinated water.

In March 2008 National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Water Authority head Uri Shani decided to examine new ways to increase the capabilities of the Dan Region's treatment facilities. The water authority is considering two alternatives. The first is to find new areas for building conventional wastewater treatment plants as well as places where reclaimed water can be stored. Another alternative is to build more expensive, but less land-intensive membrane bioreactor

Membrane bioreactor

Membrane bioreactor is the combination of a membrane process like microfiltration or ultrafiltration with a suspended growth bioreactor, and is now widely used for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment with plant sizes up to 80,000 population equivalent Membrane bioreactor (MBR) is the...

s. In 2006 the Dan Regional Wastewater Board had come under criticism for plans to incinerate sludge from Israel's largest wastewater treatment plant to replace the current practice of dumping the sludge into the sea. Critics argue that the sludge should be used as fertilizer in agriculture.

Parliamentary inquiry into reaction to water crisis (2008)

In July 2008 the Knesset State Control Committee decided to establish a state commission of inquiry into the serious water crisis facing Israel. The committee looked at the failure to implement the recommendations of a series of professional committees and cabinet resolutions aimed at addressing the water situation over the years. Then Minister for National Infrastructures, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, called the present crisis "the worst ever in Israeli history". In 2008 Israeli desalinization capacity was less than a third of the amount set by the cabinet at the end of the last water crisis in 2002, mostly due to a slowdown in preparing tenders after a few years of relatively high rainfall. The planned water-saving activities were stopped completely and were resumed only in 2006, but at an unsatisfactory slow pace. According to the Jerusalem Post, in its final report in March 2010 the commission of inquiry, headed by former judge Dan Bein, warned that the nation was "on the verge of a water quality crisis". Bein said that there was a "system-wide failure to make decisions", but did not recommend any sweeping policy changes. The report concluded that the Water Law of 1959 was in "serious need of an overhaul", since responsibilities were scattered across ministries and conflicts over authority hampered pollution control. Also, the Water Authority head should not be the chairman of the council, since that represented a conflict of interests. According to the news service Global Water Intelligence, the report went much further and charged Israeli governments past and present to be "lax to the point of criminal negligence". The Finance Ministry was accused of having delayed desalination plans arguing that conservation and wastewater reuse should have been implemented first. Only years later the ministry endorsed large-scale desalination. The Water Authority was said to have been slow, non-transparent and that it failed to coordinate with various ministries. A day after the report was presented Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau

Uzi Landau

Uzi Landau is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu and Minister of National Infrastructure. Previously a Likud MK, he served as Minister of Internal Security between 2001 and 2003.-Biography:...

fully endorsed the report and announced that his Ministry would submit a bill to curtail the Water Authority's powers and to put it more firmly under the control of his Ministry.

New National Water System

In January 2009 Mekorot

Mekorot

announced that it will invest more than NIS 2 billion (US$ 500 million) in a new National Water System. It will include several east-west arteries that rely on pumping, complementing and partly substituting for the National Water Carrier running from north to south that relied on gravity. The new pipelines will connect the five new desalination plants along the coast with water users. The project would include the construction of 100-kilometer water channels, advanced quality control and command systems, and water reservoirs. When completed, most drinking water supplied to Israel’s residents from Hadera southwards – in other words, most of the country’s population – is expected to come from desalinated seawater.

Conventional water resources

In an average year Israel has about 1.7 billion cubic meters of conventional freshwater and brackish water

Brackish water

resources at its disposal. About 1.1 billion cubic meters are from groundwater

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

and springs

Spring (hydrosphere)

A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...

, and 0.6 billion from surface water

Surface water

Surface water is water collecting on the ground or in a stream, river, lake, wetland, or ocean; it is related to water collecting as groundwater or atmospheric water....

. About 80% of the water resources are located in the North of the country and only 20% in the South. In addition, about 0.3 billion cubic meters of reclaimed water

Reclaimed water

Reclaimed water or recycled water, is former wastewater that is treated to remove solids and certain impurities, and used in sustainable landscaping irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers...

are available, bringing the total available water resources to about 2 billion cubic meters. The Sea of Galilee

Sea of Galilee

and the Coastal Aquifer are Israel's main water storage facilities, with a combined storage capacity of about 2 billion cubic meters. The coastal aquifer is used as underground storage: It is being recharged in winter through recharge wells, and water is recovered in the summer during the irrigation season. Due to recurrent drought the available stocks have been almost fully depleted.

However, the security of these resources is undermined by riparian conflicts. Several hundred million cubic meters of groundwater in the West Bank

West Bank

The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

Mountain Aquifer are disputed between Israel and the Palestinians. A 1995 Interim Agreement

Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

as part of the Oslo Peace Process provides certain quantities of water to the Palestinians, but prevents them from drilling new wells in the Mountain Aquifer. The surface water of the Jordan River remains disputed with Syria

Syria

, Lebanon

Lebanon

and the Palestinians. Only with Jordan Israel was able to reach an agreement on the sharing of water resources in 1995 as part of the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty.

Because of the risk of drought, riparian conflicts and population growth, Israel relies increasingly on non-conventional water resources such as reclaimed water and desalinated seawater.

Droughts

Successive years of drought from 1998–2002 had dramatically lowered water levels in all of the main reservoirs. 1998–1999 was the worst drought year in Israel for the past 100 years. The following years were also characterized by less than average rainfall which led to a shortfall of some half a billion cubic meters in Israel's water balance

Water balance

In hydrology, a water balance equation can be used to describe the flow of water in and out of a system. A system can be one of several hydrological domains, such as a column of soil or a drainage basin....

each year, in comparison to an average year. The winters of 2002–03 and 2003–04 were characterized by average and higher than average rainfall which led to a significant rise in the water level of the Sea of Galilee and in the collection of floodwater in catchment reservoirs. However, the country's aquifers have remained depleted. It was estimated in 2003 that increased water demand and decreased water availability has led to a cumulative deficit of nearly 2,000 million cubic metres.

Reclaimed water

In the year 2000, about 290 million cubic metres/year of treated wastewater (reclaimed water

Reclaimed water

Reclaimed water or recycled water, is former wastewater that is treated to remove solids and certain impurities, and used in sustainable landscaping irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers...

) were being reused, primarily in agriculture. Another 160 million cubic metres/year were still being discharged to the sea for lack of storage or lack of reuse infrastructure.

There are 120 wastewater treatment

Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...

plants in Israel. The three largest plants are:

the Dan
Dan
Dan is a name. It refers sometimes to the short form of the name Daniel. Dan, or the acronym DAN may refer to the following:Persons* Fyodor Dan, a Russian Marxist revolutionary...

Region Plant (120 million cubic metres/year) using activated sludge
Activated sludge
Activated sludge is a process for treating sewage and industrial wastewaters using air and a biological floc composed of bacteria and protozoans.-Purpose:...

and nutrient removal, with reuse in the Western Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
the Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

Plant (37 million cubic metres/year), with reuse in the Jezreel valley, and
the Jerusalem Sorek Plant (23 million cubic metres/year), located in the basin of the Sorek River.

Many of the smaller wastewater treatment plants are waste stabilization ponds

Stabilization pond

Stabilization pond technology - sometimes also called facultative pond technology - is a natural method for wastewater treatment.-Technology:Stabilization ponds consist of shallow man-made basins comprising a single or several series of anaerobic, facultative or maturation ponds...

, a low-cost and low-energy treatment that eliminates pathogen

Pathogen

A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...

s while conserving nutrients. An example is the Arab village of Kfar Manda in the Western Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

, whose wastewater is being treated and reused for irrigation in the neighboring Jewish community of Yodfat

Yodfat

Yodfat , is a moshav shitufi in the Lower Galilee, south of Carmiel, Israel. Part of the Misgav Regional Council and located in the vicinity of the Atzmon mountain ridge, north of the Beit Netofa Valley, Yodfat is named after the Second Temple-era town of the same name. It is situated north of the...

.

Treated wastewater constituted about 17% of consumption by the agricultural sector. The Ministry of Environment estimated in 2003 that effluents would constitute 40% of the water supplied to agriculture in 2005, 45% in 2010 and 50% in 2020. In 2007 more than 70% of treated wastewater was being reused, and Mekorot said it is striving to increase that rate to 90% until 2012.

As of 2010, 100% of the sewage from the Tel Aviv metropolitan area is treated and reused as irrigation water for fields and public works. The recycled water allows farmers to plan ahead and not be limited by water shortages.

Artificial groundwater recharge

Artificial groundwater recharge is practiced extensively in Israel from flood water, potable water from the National Water Carrier and treated wastewater. Artificial recharge has increased groundwater levels in the Coastal Aquifer and counteracted further seawater intrusion. Groundwater recharge from flood water is done by collecting runoff from winter rains in a drainage basin and directing it into recharge ponds. The groundwater is then pumped back up during summer through wells around the recharge ponds. The cost of the recharge process is limited to maintenance, with pumping costs amounting to only $0.02-$0.03 per cubic meter. About 40-50% more water than the average recharge is pumped from the aquifer in order to create a temporary hydrological depression that creates space for artificial recharge the following winter.

The largest recharge plant in Israel is the Menashe plant in the Northern coastal plain, which is operated by Mekorot. The drainage basin of the Menashe plant is 189 square kilometers, capturing about 12 million cubic meters in an average year.

Seawater desalination

In early 2002, under the impact of drought, the government approved the construction of large seawater desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast. These installations would supply 305 million m3/year of desalinated water by the year 2010 and 500 million m3/yr by 2015. The government's goal is to reach a capacity of 750 million m3/year by 2020. All projects were to be executed by the private sector, through international tenders. By mid-2002 four tenders, with a total capacity of 305 million m3/year per year of potable water, were published. All plants use reverse osmosis

Reverse osmosis

Reverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...

, utilizing self-generated power.

The NIS 1.5 billion (US$ 375 million) financing of the Hadera plant is led by a consortium of foreign banks with 50% financed by the European Investment Bank

European Investment Bank

The European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...

(EIB), 25% by the French Calyon

Calyon

Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank is Crédit Agricole's corporate and investment banking entity. With a staff of 13,000 employees in 58 countries, Crédit Agricole CIB is active in a broad range of capital markets, investment banking and financing activities...

Corporate and Investment Bank and 25% by Banco Espirito Santo

Banco Espírito Santo

Banco Espírito Santo is a private Portuguese bank, based in Lisbon.The Banco Espírito Santo’s origins began with the lottery, currency exchange and securities business carried out by José Maria do Espírito Santo e Silva between 1869 and 1884...

(BES), a Portuguese investment bank.

The construction of the plant in Ashdod by Mekorot had been delayed by an injunction in court from the private company IDE which had built the Ashkelon plant. It alleged that the contract had been awarded to Mekorot without a tender. In June 2008, the Tel Aviv District Court decided that IDE was right. In February 2009 Mekorot Development and Initiatives Ltd, a subsidiary of Mekorot

Mekorot

, published an international tender for the planning and construction of the plant. The tender foresses an option for the winner to become a partner in the special project company controlled by Mekorot that will carry out the project, and in the project operating and maintenance company, with a stake of up to 40%.

The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination

Desalination

Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...

plant is the largest in the world. The project was developed as a BOT

Build-Operate-Transfer

Build-own-operate-transfer or build-operate-transfer is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract...

(Build-Operate-Transfer) by a consortium of three international companies: Veolia water, IDE Technologies and Elran. In March 2006, it was voted 'Desalination Plant of the Year' in the Global Water Awards.
|+ Existing Israeli water desalination facilities
|-
! Location!! Opening !! Capacity
(mln m³/year) !! Cost of water
(per m³) !! Notes
|-
| Ashkelon

Ashkelon

Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...

August 2005	111 (as of 2008)	NIS 2.60	>- \| Palmachim Palmachim Palmachim is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located about ten kilometers south of the Tel Aviv area along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, among the sand dunes, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gan Raveh Regional Council...	May 2007	45	NIS 2.90	>- \| Hadera Hadera Hadera is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel approximately from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along of the Israeli Mediterranean Coastal Plain...	December 2009	127	NIS 2.60

|+ Israeli water desalination facilities under construction
|-
! Location!! Opening !! Capacity
(mln m³/year) !! Cost of water
(per m³) !!Notes
|-
| Ashdod >

2012	100 (expansion up to 150 possible)	NIS 2.40	>- \| Soreq	2013	150 (expansion up to 300 approved)	NIS 2.01 - 2.19

In 2004, a representative of the Israeli Water Commission had suggested at an international conference to use 50 million m³/year from the desalination plant in Hadera for the exclusive supply of up to one million Palestinians in the Northern West Bank.

Environmental groups, such as the Israel Union for Environmental Defense

Israel Union for Environmental Defense

-Tel Aviv islands:In November 2002 the Israeli Government appointed a six-member committee to explore the financial feasibility of creating two islands off the coast of Tel Aviv. One of the islands would be for an airport, similar to the Kobe airport in Japan, and the other island would have...

, have called for a moratorium on new desalination plants, beyond the ones already in the advanced bidding stages. "We believe that even in 2020, we can make do with desalination 315 million cubic meters", a report says. It calls for water conservation, the treatment of wastewater and the recycling of greywater

Greywater

Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands...

, as well as using construction techniques that allow rainwater to percolate into underground water reservoirs. The authors of the report claim that this would reduce the need for massive desalination of seawater and the environmental damage it causes, including the emission of greenhouse gases.

Brackish water desalination

In addition to these large plants, there are around 30 small mostly brackish water desalination plants that desalinate about 30 million m3/year. Most of these installations are in the Arava

Arava

Arava can refer to:*Arava, Estonia, a village in Anija Commune, Harju County, Estonia.*Arabah, a section of the Great Rift Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in Israel and Jordan....

and the Negev

Negev

. The largest of them (~11 million m3/year) is located in Eilat and desalinates brackish water and Red Sea water for use of the city's inhabitants. The first desalination installations were established in Israel in 1965.

According to other reports Israel desalinated only around 16,500 cubic meter/day (m3/d) of brackish water in 2008, corresponding to 6 million m3/year. In 2008 the government planned to increase this capacity more than 13-fold to somewhere between 220,000m3/d and 274,000m3/d by 2012. Some plants are intended to help to rehabilitate the southern part of the coastal aquifer, which has been adversely affected by salinity due to overextraction. In addition, a desalination facility with a capacity of 54,800m3/d-82,200m3/d is planned in the Western Galilee

Galilee

. In Nitzanim

Nitzanim

Nitzanim is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located between Ashkelon and Ashdod on the Nitzanim dunes, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 343....

in southern Israel, a plan is being studied for increasing the size of the 9,600m3/d desalination plant.

Water use

Water use in 2009 was 1.91 billion cubic meters of which fresh water use was 1.26 billion cubic meters. Water use was 100 million cubic meters (5.2%) to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, 1016 million cubic meters for agriculture(53.2%), 684 million cubic meters (35.8%) for domestic and public uses and 110 million cubic meters (5.7%) for industrial use. Average domestic water consumption in Israel is 137 litres per person per day on average, about half of indoor water use in the United States.

Sanitation

Israel generally has a modern sanitation system particularly in major Jewish towns and cities. However, a report released by the Israel Union for Environmental Defense has found that 500,000 homes in Israel are not linked to a central sewage system. The vast majorities of these homes are in 150 Arab communities that are have no sewage hook-up and whose waste is therefore expelled into cesspits or the local environment. However, Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement

Israeli settlement

An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...

of Ariel

Ariel (city)

Ariel is an Israeli settlement and a city in the West Bank. Ariel was established in 1978. Its population at the end of 2009 was 17,600, including 7,000 immigrants who came to Israel after 1990. It is the fourth largest Jewish settlement city in the West Bank., after Modi'in Illit, Beitar Illit,...

are also mentioned as dumping some of their refuse into streams.

Service quality

According to the Ministry of Environment, 97.9% of the tests complied with drinking water quality standards. An analysis of results since 1989, when disinfection

Disinfection

Disinfectants are substances that are applied to non-living objects to destroy microorganisms that are living on the objects. Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially nonresistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than sterilisation, which is an extreme physical...

of groundwater was first introduced, has shown a constant improvement in the quality of drinking water, with the percentage of violations decreasing from 8.4% in 1989 to 2.1% in 1999. In 2000, the Minister of Health signed an amended version of public health regulations which raise chemical standards for water quality to very stringent standards. Maximum levels for 38 new chemical substances—including pesticides, organic solvents and petroleum products—were set for the first time while existing standards for nitrates, lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

, cadmium

Cadmium

Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...

and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

were tightened.

The salinity

Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...

of supplied water in Israel varies from very low salinity water (10 mg/l of chlorides) from the Upper Jordan River, 200 mg/l from the Sea of Galilee, and more than 1500 mg/l from groundwater sources in the south.

Responsibility for water supply and sanitation

Responsibilities for the water and sanitation sector in Israel are defined in two key laws: The Water Law of 1959, amended most recently in 2006, and the Water and Sewerage Corporations Law of 2001.

Policy and regulation

The Minister of National Infrastructures is the Cabinet member responsible to the Parliament (the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

) for the management of water resources, proposing the national water policy for Cabinet approval and subsequently implementing it, as well as for Israel's external water relations.

Since some aspects of the management, protection and allocation of water resources fall into the spheres of other Ministries, the exercise of certain powers requires their consent. The principal Ministries in that category are the Ministries of Agriculture (agricultural allocations and pricing), Environmental Protection (water quality standards), Health (drinking water quality), Finance (tariffs and investments) and the Interior (urban water supply). Following the 2006 amendment to the Water Law many of their responsibilities with respect to the water sector were transferred to the newly created Council of the Governmental Authority of Water and Sewerage (the "Authority"). The Council is an inter-agency body, headed by the Director of the Authority, and composed of senior representatives of the Ministries of Finance, National Infrastructures, Environmental Protection and Interior. The Council guides and oversees the operations of the Authority. The Director of the Authority (formerly the "Water Commissioner") is a cabinet appointed civil servant reporting to the Minister of National Infrastructures and to the Knesset. He is nominated by the Cabinet for a period of five years. There also is a Water Board, which is composed of representatives of the Government and the public (producers, suppliers and consumers), whose consent/advise must be obtained for certain measures.

The Administration for the Development of Sewage Infrastructures, a unit in the Ministry of National Infrastructures, implements government policy in the field of development of sanitation.

Mekorot is a state-owned bulk water supplier whose main functions are to establish and manage the National Water Carrier). Mekorot serves in some cases also as a Regional Water Authority. A Regional Water Authority does not have to be owned or controlled by the Government and may be owned either privately or by municipalities.

Past water commissioners include Meir Ben Meir (1996–2000), Shimon Tal (2001–2005) and Uri Shani (since 2005).

Service provision

Bulk water supply The state-owned National Water Company (Mekorot) is responsible for bulk water supply through the National Water Carrier, transferring water from the Sea of Galilee and other sources mainly to the coastal plain. Mekorot supplies 1.5 billion cubic meters of water in an average year, 70% of Israel's entire water supply and 80% of its drinking water. It supplies water to about 4,800 intermediary water providers, including municipalities, regional associations, agricultural settlements and industrial consumers. It also operates 31 desalination plants treating nearly a million cubic meters of seawater and brackish water every day. The company's eight wastewater treatment plants, including the Dan Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, treat 40% of all Israel's wastewater. Its nine reclamation plants enable 70% of the treated effluent to be reused for agriculture. In 2007 the structure of Mekorot has been changed. The parent company, "Mekorot Water", continues to produce, transport and supply water. One of its subsidiaries, "Mekorot Ventures and Development", concentrates, among other things, on the desalination of seawater, wastewater treatment, projects for the municipal sector and projects abroad. Another subsidiary focuses on building and maintaining water infrastructures, primarily for the parent company.

Water distribution and sanitation has historically been the responsibility of municipalities, consisting of 76 cities (with a population ranging from 2,500 to 750,000 inhabitants),144 local councils

Local council (Israel)

Local councils are one of the three types of local government found in Israel, with the other two being cities and regional councils. As of 2003, there were 144 local councils in Israel, these being settlements which pass a minimum threshold enough to justify their operations as independent...

in small towns and 53 regional councils

Regional council (Israel)

Regional councils are one of the three types of local government entities found in Israel, with the other two being cities and local councils. As of 2003, there were 53 regional councils in Israel, usually responsible for governing a number of settlements spread across rural areas...

in rural areas. The Water and Sewerage Corporations Law of 2001 provides for the gradual transfer of water and sewerage services from the municipalities to newly created corporate entities. The 2001 Law aims at, inter alia, full cost recovery and the promotion of private sector investments for infrastructure. The transfer of service provision from municipalities to public service entities (called "Water and Sewerage Corporations") is initially voluntary, but at a later stage it will become compulsory. It is envisaged that by 2010 all municipal water and sewerage services will be transferred to Water and Sewerage Corporations. The Corporations may serve the area of one or more municipality, although in the latter case all municipalities in the service coverage area have to agree. The Corporations have quality of service obligations and are required to obtain a permit from the Ministry of the Interior. The Corporations may be owned either by the municipality (ies) in whose service area they operate or by private investors. The Government may intervene in the operation of the Corporation, including transferring the provision of the services to another entity in case of failure in service provision, including in case of bankruptcy.

An example of a multi-municipal utility that precedes the 2001 law is the Dan Regional Sewerage Board (Shafdan), which includes seven municipalities in and around Tel Aviv. It owns the Dan wastewater treatment plant, the largest wastewater treatment plant in the country which treats about 130 million cubic meters of wastewater annually for reuse in agriculture (see under reclaimed water). Mekorot operates the plant on behalf of Shafdan.

Financial aspects and efficiency

In Israel water tariffs are levied for all uses and at all stages of production, from groundwater abstraction, to bulk water sales to final users. Investments are financed both through self-financing from water sales revenues, through commercial debt and through various subsidies paid to municipalities and to Mekorot.

Fees and tariffs

Abstraction Fees In 1999, during a severe drought, it was decided that all those extracting water from water sources would be charged with an extraction levy. The obligation for payment of the extraction levy falls on the extractor who can pass the costs on to the consumers.

Mekorot bulk water tariff
Water tariff
A water tariff is a price assigned to water supplied by a public utility through a piped network to its customers. The term is also often applied to wastewater tariffs...

s The prices Mekorot is entitled to charge are the rates set by the Ministers of National Infrastructures and Finance, approved by the Knesset's Finance Committee, and updated from time to time according to the changes in the Consumer Price Index, electricity rates and the average wage index. The rates are categorized by the different uses: domestic, consumption and services, industry and agriculture. The rates for industrial and agriculture uses are lower than those for domestic consumption and services. Water for agriculture is supplied on a less reliable basis and is of poorer quality. Subsidies are provided for agriculture and for remote and elevated localities. The bulk water tariff for a specific use is the same throughout the country, irrespective of the difference in costs of supplying water to a specific locality. Mekorot bulk water tariffs were increased by 25% in January 2010.

Domestic water tariffs charged by local authorities are set by the Ministers of Interior and Finance. They are progressive (increasing-block) tariffs. The first price is for the initial 8 cubic meters per month for each housing unit. The second price is for the next 7 cubic meters. For each additional cubic meter, the price increases gradually. Large families are accorded water price benefits - each additional family member over 4 persons is entitled to 3 additional cubic meters a month charged according to the first rate. In condominiums apartments usually have their own meters. In 2005 the average household expenditures on water stood at 0.9% of total household consumption expenditures.

Investment

The total investment in the sector consists of investments by Mekorot in bulk water supply (including water supply for domestic uses, industry and agriculture), as well as investments by municipalities in drinking water distribution, sewerage and wastewater treatment. If half of the Mekorot investments of US$ 240 million in 2006 can be attributed to domestic water supply (US$ 120 million), and US$ 125 million were invested by municipalities in sanitation (see below), total investments in drinking water supply and sanitation stood at least US$ 245 million per year, excluding investments in desalination plants under BOO schemes and excluding investments in drinking water distribution by municipalities.

Financing

Municipalities receive grants and soft loans in order to finance investments, particularly in wastewater treatment. These subsidies are channeled through various funds, such as the Water Networks Rehabilitation Fund, the National Sewage Program and the Wastewater Renovation and Reuse Program. The State invests about NIS 450 million per year (about US$ 125 million) in sanitation through these funds, mostly in the form of long term subsidized loans (20 years, 5% interest), and some in the form of grants.

Mekorot receives a subsidy from the Ministry of Finance to cover the difference between its supply costs and the tariffs it is allowed to charge to its customers. Between 1993 and 1999 government support to Mekorot declined from 40% to 23% of its turnover, to a large extent because of an increase in the efficiency of Mekorot. This has been induced by a change introduced in 1994, whereby Mekorot's tariffs were not set any more under a cost-plus formula, but a 2.5% annual factor for efficiency increases was built into the tariff formula.

Most large-scale seawater desalination plants are being privately financed as BOT projects. The Hadera plant, for example, is led, for the first time, by a consortium of foreign banks, and amounts to NIS 1.5 billion according to the following breakdown: 50% The European Investment Bank (EIB); 25% the French Calyon Corporate and Investment Bank, which specializes in long term projects; 25% Banco Espirito Santo (BES), a Portuguese investment bank.

Mekorot Finances

Throughout its history, the Mekorot has been financially stable according to information published on its website. In 2006, Mekorot's turnover was over $700 million, shareholders’ equity was $500 million and total assets were in excess of $2.8 billion. In 2006, Mekorot invested over $240 million in developing water facilities, including a new central filtration plant, compared with $180 million in investments in 2005. For a number of years Mekorot's fundraising instruments (primarily, bond offerings) have been awarded the highest AAA rating by the Ma’alot credit rating agency

Credit rating agency

A Credit rating agency is a company that assigns credit ratings for issuers of certain types of debt obligations as well as the debt instruments themselves...

based on the following factors: Because tariffs established by the government are low and do not cover Mekorot's operating costs, the company receives compensation for the difference between what it costs to produce a unit of water and what it is allowed to charge. The level of subsidies is fixed in multi-annual agreements, the first one having covered the period 1993-98, the second one 1998-2006 and the third one for a much shorter period, 2007-08.

External links

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