Worst Water Crisis

In mid-November, The Jerusalem Post reported that Water Authority head Professor Uri Shani told the Israeli cabinet that if the rainy season was again dry, water rationing for households could be started by spring. Schor was unsure if rationing would need to be in households themselves, but said that garden watering would be seriously affected. “The lawns will be dried out, publicly and privately,” he said.

The Sea of Galilee

At the present time, the Galilee is more than a meter (3 feet, 3 inches) lower than the point at which it is not recommended to draw water from the lake, and less than 0.7 meters (2.3 feet) away from the black line. If the water level reaches that point, Schor said that pumping water from the Galilee, which represents one-third of Israel’s natural water supply, would be stopped, and having crossed the line, the Galilee would suffer “irreversible” consequences.

Why?

The reasons for the current water crisis vary. An increased population is part of the problem, as is a failure to construct enough desalination plants capable of turning sea water into fresh water to help meet the increased demand. Enduring four straight below-average rainy seasons in the Sea of Galilee region didn’t help either. However, the last of those disappointing seasons, 2007–2008, was devastating. Dr. Amos Porat, head of the Climatology Department of the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS), said that the 2007–08 rainy season in the north of Israel was one of the five or six worst in the last 70 years, a timeline that extends a full decade before the modern state of Israel was born.

Crucial Through April

That means the current rainy season is crucial, as anything less than a good rainy period could have drastic results.

The rainy season typically lasts until the end of April, giving hope that a significantly wet winter could help to rescue the situation. Yet early projections by the IMS expected the months of December–February, the main rainfall months, to be close to average, and the Water Authority’s models projected a below-average winter. The Water Authority has been encouraging people through marketing campaign efforts to conserve water.

Daniel Carmel, a tourist boat captain on the Galilee, had the best advice in the midst of the crisis. “The water situation is very bad, so we need every prayer for rain. Pray for us. Pray for rain.”

By Joshua Spurlock, BFP Israel Mosaic Radio