The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2019 | Page 30

INSIGHT
Israeli water
desalination insights
By Eamonn Ryan
sector through a price auction. “The
state is obliged to buy a quantity of
water, whether it is used or not. Water
is available and distributed to the
Israeli population within a framework
of quotas and cost structures,” he says.
For many years, Israel made little
progress in developing a national
water strategy: the challenge faced
by the country is similar to that of
South Africa (and no doubt many
others) in that the rain falls only in
certain areas. In Israel, the dry season
is from April to October. Its north has
plenty rainfall, but the central region
is drier and the south a desert. It also
has a rapidly increasing population.
Compounding this challenge, its
government departments functioned
in silos and competed with each
other for budget. Only when an
interdepartmental task team was
finally established in 2007 was the
process unjammed.
Israel’s changing demographics
affect water consumption: agriculture
Waterwise,
there
are
similarities between South
Africa and Israel: both are
dry countries with a long
coastline. Like South Africa,
the Israeli government
owns all the water and has
a duty to supply water to all
residents.
28 | CEC January 2019
S
outh Africa has much to learn
from Israel. They have five
desalination plants; we have one.
The thrust of a Collective Wisdom
lecture hosted by MDA Attorneys,
was that among the mix of water
solutions for the country, we should
have more desalination plants.
Agreeing with this viewpoint,
the Israeli Water Authority’s head of
reclaimed water, Danny Greenwald,
discussed by Skype from Israel his
country’s experience with addressing
challenges such as securing water
resources for its rapidly increasing
population and the finite nature of
natural water supplies. The solutions
Israel designed to address these issues
are: an emphasis on the decrease
in the overall water usage; use of
cleansed wastewater in agriculture;
and the implementation of new
methods such as the desalination of
seawater, which now provides almost
unlimited water resources.
Greenwald points out that four
of the country’s five desalination
facilities were built by the private
consumes 49% of water (down
from 85% in the past, a factor of
the growing population); domestic
uses 35%; industry 6%; neighbours
get 7%, including the Palestinian
Authority; and nature consumes
3%. The country’s average daily
consumption of 170ℓ means it has
an annual shortage of approximately
45% compared to natural sources.
Israeli water comes from four main
water sources: groundwater that
is extracted from aquifers through
wells; surface water that is extracted
from rivers and the Sea of Galilee;
desalinated seawater; and reclaimed
wastewater. One solution has been
to transfer water from the rain-rich
north to dry areas in the densely
populated central region.
Water efficiency is core to Israel’s
self-sufficiency, and Greenwald
explains that effective water use was
achieved by ensuring water use is
both measured and paid for. “That
promoted water self-sufficiency for
Without water, just across the border, this is what Israel would look like.
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