Last update - 00:00 31/12/2006
Privatizing the drought
By Sharon Kedmi
Last week's heavy rains did not help the Water Commission determine whether this year will officially be considered a drought year.
It is hard to predict whether the annoying advertising campaigns promoting water conservation will return next summer. However, one can easily forecast that by the end of this winter, maybe even sooner, we will be hit by a storm of propaganda.
Those in charge of the Israeli water sector are confident that their campaigns work, and are concerned by the results of the lull in ads last year.
"The Water Commission attributes great importance to water conservation as a regular way of life - not only as a temporary measure. This comes in light of previous lessons, which show that a decline in ongoing explanations leads to a gradual rise in consumption per person, and its return to its original levels," said a spokesman from the Water Commission.
Next year, however, education on water conservation will be privatized: During 2007, the Water Commission will kick off a new educational program to encourage water conservation at home, at a cost of NIS 30 million.
Three clusters of towns have already been chosen in the Center and South, each of which consumes 30-35 million cubic meters of water per year. The winner of the tender, the Milgam company, will invest in encouraging water conservation - and will be paid according to its success.
Previous conservation campaigns have revealed it is possible to save over 20 percent of the quantity of water used in the private, household sector, without harming the consumer's quality of life. Urban consumption of water, which includes household use and that of the public sector, may be reduced in this way.
According to the Water Commission, investments in conservation are far more worthwhile than investments in desalination.
Despite the dry start to the winter rainy season, last Wednesday's rains managed to raise Lake Kinneret's levels by another 2 centimeters, to -212.18 meters below sea level. This is 44 centimeters below its level in the 2005 winter.
However, to completely fill the country's main reservoir, Lake Kinneret needs to see a rise of 3.38 meters; the chances of this happening are not very good.
Israel uses 5 million cubic meters of water a day, about 2 billion a year. Of this amount, 60 percent is used for agriculture. The national water budget is constantly overdrawn, and every year the deficit increases.
To increase the supply of water, the Water Commission has already started to pick up its sea water desalination operations, and its sewage reclamation programs. There are 350 million cubic meters of recycled waste water funneled to agriculture every year, and according to the commission's plan, this amount will increase to 500 million by the end of the decade.
Due to the growing shortage of purified sewage water for agriculture, the state will not be able to avoid desalinating sea water for drinking purposes, to guarantee the supply of water over the course of a few drought years in a row.