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The Israeli government will construct the world’s largest seawater desalination plant that will achieve water self-sufficiency and ease the country’s water shortage struggle.
The 300,000-square-meter Sorek desalination facility, which will be located in the coastal city of Ashkelon in Israel’s south district, will include a pumping station, reservoirs, pipelines and a special electric installation.
Sorek Desalination Limited, owned by IDE Technologies Limited and Hutchison Water Israel Holdings, will build and operate the plant and then transfer the ownership to the government. The facility is part of a major national infrastructure project and is expected to go online by 2013.
“In recent years, the Israeli water economy has become caught in a deep crisis. There is a gap of millions of cubic meters that we will need per annum and this gap will be filled by the installations that we are planning,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He added that the facility will supply 150 million cubic meters annually, representing 25 percent of Israel’s water needs.
Water is recognized as a source of strife among Israel and the nearby regions. Israel coped with semi-parched areas for over 60 years, attributing the water shortages to the country’s high living standards and growing population.
Uzi Landau, the minister of National Infrastructures, told the Jerusalem Post that the amount of rainfall is disappointing and the natural reservoirs carry little water.
To address this issue, he said the Israeli government is investing heavily in the development of desalination, water treatment plants and distribution systems. In fact, the country’s Ministry of Finance received a loan of 141 million euros ($212 million) in December 2009 from the European Investment Bank to promote projects in water recycling and sewage infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the government inaugurated in May a large-scale reverse osmosis facility near the Haifa district’s Hadera City, which can supply drinking water for a million of the country’s residents in the central district.
The Hadera plant joins three existing desalination facilities that already produce 230 million cubic meters of water a year.
“The public, which is doing its part, especially since the rise of water prices, expects the government to solve the problem of the lack of water and prevent the need in future for levies,” Mr. Landau told the Jerusalem Post.
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Water won't run dry in India and China thanks to World Bank
The World Bank will lend India $372 million and China $100 million to help both countries’ manage their water sector.
India will use $222 million for its coastal zone management project and $150 million for the current Karnataka rural water supply project.
With the World Bank support, China will address the deteriorating water condition in the Turpan Basin in easternmost Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
India’s marine resource is said to be suffering from rapid urban industrialization, risking the health of about 63 million residents in low-elevation coastal areas.
India’s coastal management program includes pilot investments such as mangrove plantation, coral reef regeneration and sewerage and solid waste management in the coastal states of Gujarat, Orissa and West Bengal.
The Karnataka project is part of the bank’s longterm program to support local government projects to build water supply systems in 4,166 villages. The project began in 1993. The funding will enable the Karnataka project to include 1,650 more villages, allowing four million people to access reliable water supply.
The Xinjiang Turpan water conservation project is expected to reduce groundwater overdraft in the Turpan Basin while raising industrial and domestic water supply and farmers’ income from irrigated agriculture.
Around 600,000 people inhabit the Turpan Prefecture, where farmers traditionally rely on mountain rivers, or from the ancient Karez water systems for irrigation.
The area has been experiencing groundwater overexploitation caused by increased water consumption brought about by rapid economic growth in recent years.
The bank and the local government will execute water-saving approaches, such as evapotranspiration-based integrated water management system to assess, plan and allocate water for consumptive use.
The project also includes construction of three reservoirs to upgrade flood control in three main watersheds while increasing water supplies downstream and maintaining minimum ecological river flows.
The project will also employ other water saving methods such as construction and rehabilitation of the main canals, a switch from furrow to drip irrigation, land leveling, canal lining and improved drainage systems.
Also, a 2,000-year-old Karez water supply system will be restored to continue providing running water to the Turpan Basin.
Of the 1,237 ancient Karez systems that existed in 1957, only 300 still have running water. The disappearance of these water systems has led to the degradation of the oasis ecosystems in the Turpan Basin.
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