Five years into a drought that has left its natural water sources at their lowest in a century, Israel plans to build two new desalination plants and expand its pipelines to ease stress on farmers and the environment.
The lack of rainfall has overtaxed Israel's desalination and waste-water treatment plants, choking its most fertile regions in the north of the country and bringing calls for government action.
"The shortage of natural water is the worst that has been measured in about 100 years and is bringing water sources in the north to an unprecedented low point," Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz said this week.
The ministry announced a plan to build two more desalination plants to reinforce the five that have been built along the Mediterranean coast over the past 13 years. The ministry did not state their price, but the construction of the five existing plants cost a total of about $400 million.
Additional desalination facilities will also expand the country's water grid, cut back on pumping from natural springs to rehabilitate rivers that have dried up, and possibly even pump large amounts of water into the ailing Sea of Galilee, technically a lake near the Syrian border that is Israel's main freshwater source.
In the Middle East, one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, water is also the subject of wider tensions. Intense pressure on already scarce water resources could lead to an increase in migration and the risk of conflict, the World Bank has warned.
Steinitz said he would bring the plan to the government for approval in the coming weeks.
