Current plans for water conservation and existing desalination facilities are insufficient to meet the country’s growing water demands and rapidly decreasing supply, the Environmental Protection Ministry warned on Tuesday.

Due to the “serious threats to Israel’s water resources, there is a need for a visionary plan exceeding the one in place today,” Dr. Yeshayahu Bar-Or, the ministry’s chief scientist, wrote in a letter to Water Authority head Prof. Uri Shani. “Desalination plants operating even at the increased rate of 500-800 million cubic meters per year cannot provide an adequate response to the worsening shortage in water. Extra measures are needed.”

Currently, 60 percent of Israel’s sewage water is recycled. According to forecasts published in 2005, water produced at a string of desalination plants planned for the Mediterranean coast is expected to meet 15% of the country’s needs in 2008. Continue reading →