Israel facing worst water crisis

The past winter's meager rainfalls and sharp rise in domestic water consumption have brought Zionist regime to the most acute water crisis in the past decade.

Israelis main water sources are expected to drop below the safe minimum levels by the end of the summer, which threatens the water quality. The Water Authority will have to take conservation measures while drilling for water in an effort to increase the supply.

The Water Authority's operating committee is to meet next week to discuss the crisis.

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The Water Authority's Hydraulic Service predicts that the levels of Lake Kinneret, the western Mountain Aquifer (Yarkon-Taninim) and Coast Aquifer will plunge below the safe minimum by the end of the year. The Kinneret's surface is expected to drop to 214.2 meters below sea level, more than a meter below the safe minimum.

The deficit in the water balance (amount of water pumped out compared to rainfall) will reach 410 million cubic meters by the end of the year, almost twice as much as last year's deficit. Altogether, the past four years' accumulated deficit is almost a billion cubic meters.

The Kinneret is 60 centimeters lower today than it was last year and more than three meters lower than four years ago. Last month - the last main winter month - the Hydraulic Service's monitoring stations did not register a single significant rise in any of Israel's streams.

On top of the paucity of rain, domestic water consumption is rising by 4 percent a year. "Among other things, the dry winters increased the water used for gardening," says Tami Shor, Water Service's operation manager.

Domestic water consumption is expected to reach an estimated 796 million cubic meters by the end of the year, 134 million cubic meters more than it was at the beginning of the decade, she says. This amount is almost equal to the production of the Ashkelon and Palmahim desalination plants, wiping out the two plants' contribution in less that ten years.

Palestinian Agriculture Minister said Eitam's decree was "aimed at dehydrating the Palestinians". He said that it is Israel which is stealing the Palestinians' water by pumping from the West Bank's "mountain aquifer," which under international law belongs to the Palestinians. 80% of that water is sent to Israel and only 20% to the Palestinians. The minister said that the Palestinians' average water consumption is 10 times below the average consumption of the Jewish settlements.

"Israel steals 80% of our rights to the water, sells it to us, and then claims we're stealing the water," he said.