AMMAN — Israel will start supplying desalinated
water to the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan, according to an Israeli Radio report
on Wednesday, Amman Net reported.
اضافة اعلان
The Israeli report said that Israel's Water Authority and
Mekorot company would begin pumping desalinated water from the Mediterranean
Sea, alongside groundwater, to Lake Tiberias through a Qatari pipeline,
describing the operation as "an ambitious step".
It added that the project cost is estimated at seven hundred
million Israeli shekels, about $200 million.
The report also quoted the former head of the Israeli Water
Authority, Giora Shaham, saying that "Israel was able to solve its water
issues for the next 30 years, including providing Jordan, the West Bank, and
Gaza with this resource".
Last June, The Times of Israel reported that Israel is set
to become the first country in the world to channel desalinated water into a
natural lake — Lake Tiberias.
It also added that Mekorot plans to complete the
construction of a 13km underground pipe by the end of 2022, followed by weeks
of tests before it goes into operation around the end of the first quarter of
2023.
The pipeline will connect the lake to a network, which in
turn is connected to five desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast, the
paper said.
It added that tests indicate that the project will not have
any significant impact on the ecosystems, and will keep water levels stable.
The idea the pipeline came about following several
disastrous drought years, from 2013-2018, when the lake’s level reached an
all-time low.
As part of political agreements, Israel sells about 100
million cubic meters annually to the Palestinians, who are pumping out an
additional 160 million cubic meters in the West Bank and 200 million cubic
meters in Gaza.
In October last year, Israel agreed to double the quantity
of water it supplies Jordan to 50 million cubic meters annually, according to
the newspaper.
A month later, Israel and Jordan signed an Emirati-brokered
deal in which Israel would supply the Kingdom with up to 200 million cubic
meters of additional water, in exchange for Jordanian solar energy.
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