With water levels in Lake Kinneret and underground reservoirs just beginning to climb above their all-time lows, Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies will present a six-point plan of action today aimed at solving the nation’s water crisis. The plan has already drawn support from MKs all across the board, as well as from the pro-agriculture lobby and the conservationists. The BESA Center Water Project experts have spent two years weighing recent scientific and technological discoveries, strategic and international factors, and budgetary and political constraints. The results will be presented during today\'s conference on “Efficient Use of Limited Water Resources,\" at which Minister of Infrastructures Avigdor Lieberman and Minister of Agriculture Shalom Simhon will speak, with the participation of MKs Ze\'ev Boim and Avshalom Vilan, Water Commissioner Shimon Tal, and other water experts and researchers. The six-step plan of action includes the following measures:
Immediate steps to implement emergency solutions such as desalination and importing water from Turkey.
Concern for agriculture as a national interest, and replacing water-cost discounts to farmers with direct subsidies.
A national emergency plan for the development and implementation of ways to reprocess and use wastewater, as well as more effective use of rain and run-off water.
Water should be sold at its market value, without subsidies.
The increased supply made possible by desalination, imports, and reprocessing should allow for a decrease in pumping from reservoirs and aquifers.
Improving education and information on water conservation.
For more information, see
Immediate steps to implement emergency solutions such as desalination and importing water from Turkey.
Concern for agriculture as a national interest, and replacing water-cost discounts to farmers with direct subsidies.
A national emergency plan for the development and implementation of ways to reprocess and use wastewater, as well as more effective use of rain and run-off water.
Water should be sold at its market value, without subsidies.
The increased supply made possible by desalination, imports, and reprocessing should allow for a decrease in pumping from reservoirs and aquifers.
Improving education and information on water conservation.
For more information, see