Interring a sewage pipe
Interring a sewage pipeFlash 90

Israel's Internal Affairs and Environmental Protection Ministry on Wednesday discussed the fact that many IDF bases are not connected to the sewage system.

"I cannot believe that in 2017, I need to discuss the fact that dozens of IDF bases are not yet connected to the sewage system," MK David Amsalem (Likud) said. "This doesn't add to our honor, it doesn't add to our health, and the damages it causes cost a lot of money."

"I am asking the Finance Ministry to sit with the Defense Ministry and work together to ensure the problem is fixed quickly.

"If it costs 700 million NIS to connect the IDF to the sewage system, did the government approve a budget of only 400 million NIS? That kind of thing means we're not serious."

Defense Ministry Infrastructure and Environmental Protection Head Eitan Aram said, "As the IDF moves southward, more and more money will be invested. Those bases which already have infrastructure will see improvements and upgrades. The new bases will obviously be connected to sewage."

"There are guidelines for setting priorities: Availability, the ability to connect to local sewage systems, cost vs quantity. If there is no local civilian sewage system, we try to make compact devices, but that requires approval from the Health Ministry and Water Authority."

Defense Ministry representative Avnit Eshchar said they "check the cost of the electricity and the location itself."

"In small places, we solved the problem by using pits. There are 33 bases which cannot be connected to the sewage system, because there is nothing nearby. Not everywhere do we have where to put the water. We work according to the guidelines provided by the Health Ministry and Water Authority."

"If we connect all the bases waiting to be connected to the sewage system, we'll still have 74 left unconnected in 2020, and connecting them isn't even budgeted for," Knesset Research and Information Center representative Shiri Spector said.

"You're talking about 300 million NIS. There are two instances in which the lack of a proper sewage system causes severe environmental damage: when the base is near a water drilling site, or when it pollutes farmland. We hope to connect all of the Samaria Brigade's bases by 2019.

"The Samaria Brigade waited a long time for the regional council to approve its expansion. Since the moment they received approval, the plans have advanced quickly. There are conditions. There are difficulties. We're trying to be creative, to solve the issues from another direction.

"We're not sitting on the fence with our hands folded, waiting."