Extended drought tests Israel’s water strategy

Desalination approach not meeting rising need

KFAR YUVAL, Israel — For years, public service announcements warned Israelis to save water: Take shorter showers. Plant resilient gardens. Conserve. Then Israel invested heavily in desalination technology and professed to have solved the problem by tapping into the abundant waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The once ubiquitous conservation warnings vanished.

Now, a five-year drought is challenging that strategy, as farmers struggle and the country’s most important bodies of water shrink.

It’s a confounding situation for a country that places itself on the forefront of desalination technology in an arid region, where water is a key geostrategic issue that has its own clauses in peace agreements.

“Nobody expected five years of drought in a row, so despite our desalination capacity, it’s still a very, very grave situation,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of energy.

Some say Israel’s technological prowess may not be enough to overcome the forces of nature.

Situated in the heart of the Middle East, Israel is in one of the driest regions on earth, traditionally relying on a short rainy season each winter to replenish its limited supplies.

Years of decreased rainfall have reduced the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main natural water source, to some of its lowest recorded levels, and Israel has stopped pumping water from it to its national system.

The current drought has also dried out some tributaries that feed into the Jordan River, which flows south into the Sea of Galilee then squiggles 220 miles to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea.

The biblical bodies of water are crucial to the survival and stability of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, but they are increasingly drying up, largely due to climate change, growing populations and the greater use of water for agriculture.

In a bid to achieve water security, Israel has opened five desalination plants since 2005 and plans to expand that effort in the coming years. Roughly 40 percent of Israel’s drinking-quality water now comes from desalination and is expected to hit 70 percent in 2050.

When the drought was in its infancy, Israel greeted it with a shrug, pointing to its massive investment in desalination. But the tone has changed recently, and over the last few months a televised ad again has pleaded with Israelis to save water because — rehashing a tagline from previous campaigns — “Israel is drying up.”

Critics say water conservation — a crucial measure in semi-arid Israel — has been sidelined in favor of desalination.

“Israel definitely put conservation on the backburner. As soon as desalination plants were up and running there was this false sense of security,” and water consumption rose, said Sarit Caspi-Oron, director of the water department at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, an advocacy group.

“Desalination doesn’t make up for everything, and when groundwater is suffering from drought and the Sea of Galilee is suffering from drought, you need to conserve,” said Caspi-Oron.

In the past, Israel has imposed taxes on water use during droughts and has promoted the use of water-saving devices. But there are no plans to pursue the measures this time around.

Among the first to feel the drought’s sting have been farmers in Israel’s Galilee region. Israel has imposed a limit on the amount of water they can use, which has threatened an already tenuous livelihood and forced many to rethink their crops.

Israeli farmer Ofer Moskovitz can typically grow more than one crop each year, but for the first time he has chosen not to plant his wheat crops and is only growing avocados. Even that change is proving a challenge.

“If I don’t water the avocado trees for one day they start getting weak. If I don’t water them for a year, 20 years would go down the drain,” he said.

Caron Creighton The Associated Press Farmer Ofer Moskovitz checks soil July 17 in his field near Kfar Yuval, Israel. The area is enduring a five-year drought.