Shower shortage
Filed under: A New Reality, design, Environment, General
I’ve been hearing rumors about plans to limit water usage in Israeli homes, as in showers and dishwashing and not just gardens and plants. I’d almost welcome the limitation. Not that I’d be happy about that severe of a shortage, given what it would mean, but it seems that we’re so conscious of our water limitations, and having the law laid down, so to speak, would almost be welcome, rather than this drive to conserve without it being an absolute. Then again, maybe not.
Let me explain. This year, as opposed to previous summers, the need to conserve water and show that one is conserving water, is more apparent. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t soap up their dishes before rinsing, and, for that matter, soap themselves without the water running. It’s unheard of to leave the water running while brushing one’s teeth, or to fill up a tub of water for a baby’s bath, even if it’s two babies.
There are those who bring a pail into their showers, filling up the bucket while showering and then using the water on their plants and gardens. (Although gray water may expose people to bacteria, according to the Health Ministry, in a recent Haaretz article.) And the truly inventive Rube Goldbergs among us have rigged flushing systems for their toilets, using said water. I haven’t gone that far, but I only fill the bathtub with about an inch of water for my baby boys’ bath, and I save the unused boiled water from the hot water urn each Shabbat to water my houseplants and wash the floor. And, I know this may be TMI, but I don’t flush if it’s just a #1.
I’ve got a long way to go, I know. But I’m in the game. And if gray recycling systems are considered effective, I’m ready, because I picked up a flyer advertising someone who comes to your house to rig up water-saving devices. Rube Goldberg, here I come.
Nostalgia Sunday – Mekorot’s water portfolio
Filed under: Environment, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday
To celebrate Tel Aviv’s Centennial anniversary, Mekorot, Israel’s national water company, has dug into its photo archive and released images from the construction of the Tel Aviv water pipeline project. Check out the kovaei tembel, the soft cloth hats that once symbolized the Israeli pioneer worker.
These images are from 1963. The original Western Pipeline – Yarkon-Negev Plant pipeline was completed in 1955 but as Tel Aviv’s population grew, along with demand for water, it was decided to add the additional Dan pipeline to boost the water supply. The project was completed in the mid-60s.
Today, Mekorot is considered one of the world’s most technologically advanced water companies and a world leader in desalination, water reclamation, water project engineering, water safety, water security and water quality. Its all-important task is formulating and implementing the country’s national water policy.
Over the past 12 months, Mekorot has embarked on a number of major projects, including the construction of a fifth pipeline to Jerusalem…
…construction of the desalination facility in Ashdod with a capacity of 100 million cubic meters a year and linking of the desalination facilities along the coastline — such as the world’s largest such plant at Ashkelon, pictured here — with the national water system…
…plus other projects aimed at increasing the supply of water, for example, cloud seeding in the winter months. Mekorot has engaged in “rain-enhancement” for over 45 years and has managed to increase the annual rainfall in the Sea of Galilee catchment by 13%-18%.
Mekorot facilities have visitors centers with guided tours. As for the archive, it isn’t presently online but give them time. And, given their technological edge, it will be amazing to think of what pictures Mekorot will release when Tel Aviv’s 200th rolls along.
First rains
It was the first rain yesterday. In Israel we take our rain seriously. My children were out there quick as a flash, dancing around the garden as if…, well as if they hadn’t seen rain for six months.
Their education in water conservation was immediately apparent. Every container they could find was pressed into use catching raindrops and run off water from the roof. When the rain stopped they began diligently watering all the pots.
It may have been short, and it was definitely filthy (the first rain always leaves you wiping down your windows, car, garden furniture, and the floor, if you unluckily left your window open), but yesterday’s rain was a welcome sight for everyone.
Last year’s dry, warm winter compounded three previous years of drought, leaving Israel facing its worst water crisis in years.
With the red line of the Galilee – Israel’s main reservoir of natural water – already breached, pumping looks as if its set to reach the black line, beyond which point many believe the damage to the lake is irreversible.
With the government seemingly doing little to reverse the crisis – even water rates haven’t gone up in price – we desperately need rain this year, and many will be hoping that Saturday’s early shower will be an indication of a rainy winter to come. Around Jerusalem at least, up to half an inch fell yesterday, while in Tel Aviv and other areas of the country, the rain was fairly light and drizzly, allowing the parched earth to absorb some of the run off.
No forecasters are willing to give any predictions of rainfall this winter, but the rain did set in motion one important yearly tradition, known and dreaded by parents – mostly mothers – everywhere: the autumn switch to winter clothes, an exhausting job that involves trailing through the dark recesses of children’s wardrobes, and boxes stashed under the bed.
Water me
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.
Israel runs dry
Uh Oh. Israel’s in a water crisis. On Monday, the water level of Lake Kinneret, Israel’s main reservoir, fell below the red line, and today former head of the Water Commission, Dan Zaslavsky, warned that Israel’s faucets could run dry by mid-summer.
Sounds serious right? So why hasn’t anyone done anything about this up to now?
As a Brit turned Israeli, this is something I find a little hard to understand.
Back when I lived in the rainy wet UK, not a summer used to go by without some kind of hosepipe ban. The rivers would be full, the reservoirs seemingly flush with water, but the government said there was a drought, so our hosepipe’s went off, and the grass would turn brown, and our gardens wilt. I remember summer after summer watering the garden with our bathwater.
Here in Israel, however, a country where it doesn’t rain for almost six months of the year, and where this year in particular, winter with its heavy rains just didn’t come, water conservation is a topic that seems to extend no further than the op-ed pages.
Israel is in a serious water crisis. Pumping from the Kinneret will have to stop soon, and we still have the worst of the summer to come. Water supplies will be cut to towns that receive water from the National Water carrier, agriculture will be badly hit, and damage could be substantial.
Everyone saw this coming, but nothing significant was done to stop it. What about desalination plants, what about an education campaign for Israel’s public, what about a little forethought for heaven’s sake? Come on. This is the country that invented drip irrigation.
“We need to pray for a serious rainy winter,” Shuli Chen, the Water Commission official who has been measuring the Kinneret’s level for the last eight years (now there’s a job…), told a local Israeli paper. “An average winter won’t suffice. If there is not a serious flow of water into the Kinneret this winter, our situation will be very bad.”
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