Picture of the week – first rains

September 23, 2009 - 7:44 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Picture of the Week 

Jerusalem, Rosh hashana. Two months of rain fall in just two days.

Jerusalem, Rosh hashana 2009. Two months of rain fall in just two days.


Israel was surprised this week by unusually heavy first rains. Accustomed to short, light showers that kick off the winter season, Israel got a soaking instead.

The storms over the Rosh Hashana holiday, brought in by a band of cold weather from Turkey and the Black sea, actually set a new rainfall record – what fell in just two days equaled the average total for both September and October, according to the Water Authority.

The storms were greeted with much pleasure. With five drought years behind us, Israelis are resorting to increasingly creative ways to reuse gray water and conserve fresh water (from short showers to inventive flushing systems for the loo) in the wake of the worst drought in Israel’s history.

In Kfar Saba, for instance, the municipality is now introducing a new biofilter that will clean urban rain water runoff to recharge old and out of service water wells. It’s a pilot project in the country’s first environmentally friendly urban housing project. Watch out for the story in the coming weeks in ISRAEL21c .

As far as rainfall goes, we now have to wait and see what comes next. As we enter an El Nino year, some people are anticipating a wet winter as rainfall patterns across the world respond to the warmer seas.

The Water Authority is warning us not to get too excited, however. In a recent
Jpost article, Water Authority spokesman, Uri Schor announced that El Nino could also cause an even more severe drought year than the last five.

“We’re on the rim of the El Nino effect and no one knows what it will bring. It could conceivably bring a lot of rain, but it could also bring about a severe drought year. It’s clear what we’re all hoping for,” he said.

Given that the last time we had a rainy winter, the Israeli government slowed work on its desalination projects, setting us back several years, it’s probably not surprising he’s so cautious.

For most Israelis, however, this sudden unexpected downfall was a welcome diversion from the heat, and a chance to enjoy that fresh, clean scent that follows the rain.

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In need of rain? Ask a government minister

January 27, 2009 - 3:26 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

I feel like a fish that has been left out of water too long. I’m literally gasping for rain. Being one of those foreign transplants from grey, rainy Britain, Israel’s warm climate is a frequent source of joy. But while I enjoy the heat and the sunshine, I still need the storms and rain of winter to help me get through the long, hot, barren, endlessly blue and sunny summers where I seem to suffer a kind of reverse seasonal affect disorder.

Oh for a good heavy rainstorm...

Oh for a good heavy rainstorm...


This year I’m not the only one. Even the most hardened Israeli sun-lovers, who normally complain of depression after just one day of rain, are protesting. And with reason. It’s been the driest January since Israeli records began, and it comes after four other exceptionally dry years.
From 1980 to 2007, the available volume of water in Lake Kinneret was 328 million cubic meters a year. This year it will be just 45 million cubic meters. Prof. Uri Shani, head of the Water Authority said the probability of Israel having such a dry winter, after a series of four dry years, was practically zero – but when did probability enter into global warming.
There are all sorts of plans afoot on how to deal with this water crisis – plans which quite frankly should have been put in place a year or two ago, but possibly the most kooky of the lot comes from Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon, who has come up with the idea of changing all the mezuzot in the Israel Water Authority offices.
Under Jewish tradition, a mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah, which is put inside a special case and attached to doorframes as a kind of blessing. Some people like to kiss their hand and touch the case as they go in and out of the building, for good luck.
Simhon’s big plan, then, is to change the blessings inside these mezuzot in an effort to change Israel’s luck with rainfall patterns. The minister explained his logic by telling other ministers that when Labor was at an all-time low in the polls, he changed the mezuzot at the Labor House, and the party doubled its strength.
Good to know the water crisis is in capable hands, eh? Perhaps we should also consider bringing a tribe of native Indians across to do a rainfall dance. Of course water rationing, and a desalination plant or two might also help. But hell, what would I know, I’m not a government minister.

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Water me

August 4, 2008 - 7:25 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General 

The Knesset is ordering the formation of a state commission of inquiry to investigate the causes of Israel’s major water crisis.

What’s hilarious about this is that this supposedly ‘rare move’ is intended to assign blame, yet there have already been many commissions assigned to figure out solutions to the water crisis. Why form yet another commission to decide who is in the wrong, and instead figure out what needs to be done now in order to work toward solving the crisis?

Clearly I’m not the only one who’s thinking this, as proven by the many comments written in below this particular Ynet article. More than one reader mentions the Zarchin desalination process, which converts sea water to fresh water.

Everyone also talks about conserving water; clearly, something we all need to do. I grew up letting the water run when I brushed my teeth and washed the dishes and took 20-minute showers. Now I soap up all the dishes before rinsing them, get every tooth brushed before rinsing and turn off the shower while I shave my legs. Okay, not really, but I think about it. And I’m gradually getting my backyard grass to get used to life with very little water, while still consenting to grow lush and green.

I’ve even found myself contemplating my neighbor’s airconditioning water runoff, thinking about placing a bucket beneath the pipe and using the water for my garden. Or, on second thought, I could order a neighborhood commission of inquiry to find out what exactly he thinks he’s doing with his water.

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