A UNIQUE TRAGEDY and MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Solution: We Need To Beg Hashem to Give us The Rains We Need 
(let not this Prayer go into disuse)

Desalination isn’t the Magic Bullet, 

Water Authority warns Israelis

In the 5th year of a devastating drought, new campaign reminds Israelis to save water even though the country is no longer dependent on the rains

As the international community marks the UN’s World Environment Day on Tuesday, the Israel Water Authority has a pointed message for Israeli residents: You still have to save water, even if we have desalination plants.

Over the past weeks, the Water Authority unveiled a large public service campaign entitled “Israel is drying out… again,” aimed at reminding Israelis that saving water at home is still important, even though 70% of the country’s drinking water comes from desalination plants.

“We’re giving water freely to our enemies in Gaza, but Israelis they tell to save water,”

“The water situation in the north is the worst since we first began taking measurements [98 years ago],” said Uri Schor, the spokesman for the Water Authority. “We’re seeing that climate change is wreaking incredible damage. There’s an increasing gap between our water needs and the reality of the water we have.”

[. . .] Northern Israel is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 100 years, leaving the country’s water tables with a deficit of 2.5 billion cubic liters of water, compared to non-drought years.

That deficit is the equivalent of one million Olympic-size swimming pools, water that would normally flow through Israel’s streams and underground water tables towards the Sea of Galilee and other water sources.

The Sea of Galilee is currently at 213.46 meters (689 feet) below sea level, half a meter below the danger zone of the lower red line. In 2001, the Sea of Galilee was at an even lower level, 214.87 meters (705 feet) below sea level, which was christened as the lake’s “black line.”

The black line is a dangerously low level that can create irreversible ecological problems, including an increase in the water’s salinity and algae blooms that can do permanent damage to the water quality, and flora and fauna. Last year, the Water Authority had to pump 17,000 tons of salt out of the Sea of Galilee to ensure that the lower water levels didn’t cause the water to get too salty.

Read the full sad article TimesofIsrael