Over and drought: Why the end of Israel's water shortage is a secret [desalination creates surplus]

Remember all the years of being told to conserve 'every drop?' Well, times have changed: Today, Israel has so much affordable water, it can offer to export it. So why is this achievement being kept so secret?

In ancient times and even during the years of the British Mandate (1917-1948), the shortage of water in Palestine, as well as among its neighbors in the Middle East, had a decisive influence not only on the area’s economic development, but also on the political strife between Jews and Arabs. Technology has changed all this. Now, the ability to produce all the water that's needed, whether for human consumption or for agriculture, may soon change our way of life and perhaps even, if our neighbors agree, bring peace closer.

There is now a surplus of water in Israel, thanks largely to the opening of several new desalination plants - and the development of natural-gas fields that can power them cheaply. Since water is the source of life, the well-known Israeli imperative to “save every drop” should still be respected. But the price the Israeli population is charged for its water supply should be reduced by more than the 5 percent drop announced on January 1 of this year.

Israel didn’t invent trickle irrigation or hydroponics, but has worked on both more than anyone; at one time Israel was a net exporter of water insofar as it grew fruit for European produce markets. As the population grew and especially after the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan (which requires Israel to make up a certain amount of water shortfall in Jordan, a shortfall engineered by everyone’s favorite hereditary dictatorship in Syria), Israel reduced its fresh fruit exports and looked for sources from outside the country.

Israel would have even more water, but also supplies water to the Gazan parasite:
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2706/is_israel_really_to_blame_for_gaza_s_water_shortages

Since 1967 there had been talk about trading the Sinai for a canal to bring Nile water to Israel — an idea condemned by Sudan, which threatened rather unrealistically to cut off Nile water to Egypt. The so-called Peace Canal was one of the big projects during the Mubarak years, and that led to a large conduit getting dug under the Suez Canal and an open-air canal heading east along the Med coast toward El-Arish.

Thanks grundle.

Israel

Israel Desalination Enterprises’ Sorek Desalination Plant in Palmachim is to provide up to 26,000 m³ of potable water per hour (2.300 m³ p.a.). At full capacity, it will be the largest desalination plant of its kind in the world.[95]

The Hadera seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant in Israel is the largest of its kind in the world.[96][97] The project was developed as a build–operate–transfer by a consortium of two Israeli companies: Shikun and Binui, and IDE Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Israel

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