Rainfall in Israel is expected to be at normal levels over the coming twelve months, according to predictions that raised hopes after five consecutive years of drought.
But the National Water Authority estimates this will not be enough to fully replenish the country’s scarce sources of natural water.
It has prompted a radical plan to build an underwater route that would pump desalinated water into the receding Sea of Galilee, once the source of most of the country’s freshwater.
Weather forecasting models, although much improved in recent decades, failed to predict how dry Israel’s most recent winters would be — leading to a greater reliance on desalination plants, more restrictions for farmers and further water-saving measures for domestic consumers.
Drought is, of course, a global problem and Israel is in a relatively better position than many of its Middle Eastern neighbours, thanks to its desalination and reclamation programmes.
At present, it pumps over 100 million cubic meters of water annually to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
This is partly because Israel has invested heavily in desalination plants in recent years, making it the world leader in the reclamation of effluents and brackish water.
Its methods have helped to alleviate the water shortage and ensure the wider public does not feel a significant impact.
But critics say only 80 per cent of waste water is being reused for agriculture, where it should be nearly 100 per cent by now.
Bureaucratic obstacles have also held up the construction of new desalination plants. The two major facilities that have been given the go-ahead so far will be insufficient to meet demand.
Then there is the ecological impact, which is clear to see for anyone hiking across the country in the early spring months.
Rainfall would once swell up the desert riverbeds for a short but colourful wet period, but many of these seasonal streams have been dry for years, damaging the Negev’s desert wildlife ecosystem
Meanwhile tourism income in Tiberias and smaller communities around the Sea of Galilee has fallen as the freshwater lake’s waterline creeps further away.
The National Water Carrier — a system of giant pipes, canals, tunnels and pumping stations completed in 1964 — was designed to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee to the main coastal urban area around Tel Aviv and the Negev.
It began carrying desalinated water from the Mediterranean in 2009; seven years later, pumping out of the Sea of Galilee ended.
But the continuing drought meant the water level continued to fall and now the Galilee is at its lowest level ever, prompting the Ministry of Energy to launch a study for what is now being called unofficially “the reverse National Water Carrier”.
This reverse pipeline, costing billions of shekels, would replenish the Galilee with desalinated water.
Pumping water from the sea into a freshwater lake may seem counter-intuitive, but it could be the only way to save Israel’s landscape.
