Be water-wise like Israel

TONY Ehrenreich castigates mayor Patricia de Lille because of her tardiness in planning for the predicted water crisis in the city. He is correct to do so, but studiously ignores the fact that he has been in the forefront of a campaign to block the obvious solution to the problem – assistance from the one country able to help, which is Israel.

Amazingly, Israel has more water than it needs. The turnaround began in 2007 when the national water authority built innovative water treatment systems that recapture 86% of the water that goes down the drain and use it for irrigation.

But even with those measures, Israel still needed about 1.9 billion cubic metres of freshwater per year and was getting just 1.4 billion cubic metres from natural sources. That 500 million-cubic-metre shortfall was the critical factor that needed to be addressed.

Enter desalination. The Ashkelon plant, in 2005, provided 127 million cm3 of water. Hadera, in 2009, put out another 140 million cm3 . And now Sorek, 150 million cm3 . All told, desalinisation plants can provide 600 million cm3 of water a year – and more are on the way.

The Sea of Galilee is fuller. Israel’s farms are thriving. The country faces a previously unheard of question: what to do with its extra water?

Desalination used to be an expensive energy consumer, but the advanced technologies being employed today have been a game-changer. Water produced by desalination costs just a third of what it did in the 1990s. Sorek can produce a thousand litres of drinking water for 58c. Israeli households pay about $30 (R395) a month for their water. Get water- wise, and consult the experts in the field.