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Water resources: the need for desalination
33
SESSION 1: DISCUSSION (Major points from the discussion
Water resources: -
following
the papers)
the need for desalination
The Water Commisssioner’s
paper was claimed
to have created the im-
pression that the major need for additional water was for domestic purposes, once sewage reclamation is completed. How far was this scheme, then, advanced? - What financial resources did the government apply to increasing the water utilization efficiency in agriculture, as compared with development of new water resources? To what degree could this efficiency be improved further, given the acknowledged achievements of Israeli agriculture in this area in the past? - Were there any statistics available on the chances of two or more consecutive drought years? One tended, in this connection, to remember the seven Biblical “lean years”. - When talking about expected water shortages, what quality, and especially, what chloride contents was considered necessary? - Could an engineering forecast be carried out on the economics of additional pumping capaicty from the Kinneret Lake (the national water reservoir), to enable fuller utilization (in the rainy season) of water accumulating in the lake in rainy years? - The Water Commissioner,answering these comments, was of the opinion, that the resources applied for increasing water utilization efficiency needed augmentation. It was realized, however, that water recovery schemes, such as the Dan Region project, which do not deliver their product before the investment has been completed, had a priority where financing was considered. Furthermore, the need for water delivery networks to new settlements was dictated by considerations over which the Water Commission had no say. - He mentioned that research existed which had figured out the cost to the growers of each additional 10 mg/l of chloride, above 170, on Shamouti orange groves. - The unpredictable occurrence of rai,ly years made it, in the Water Commissioner’s opinion, hardly possible to quantify the desirability for additional pumping capacity from the Kinneret Lake into the National Water Carrier. By lowering the lake’s water level 1 meter additionally in the summer, an additional volume of 160 million m3 would be made available for collecting rain water from the lake’s watershed. Even when including all costs involved (such as, for example, inlets fcr pumps, modified jetties, etc.), this scheme would deliver the cheapest possible water.
34
- The Water Commissioner stressed the need for basing population dispersal schemes not on a~c~~~ activities ex.cIusively , since such basis might resuit in u~des~bie large-scale ~~p~ati~~ movement in pe~~ds of Lesser water asaiiability _ - The Water C~rnrn~~s~~~er mentioned some real cost% of water in the south of Israel. In the Paran Region (some 100 km north of Eilat), .vater cost the State some 0.7 S/m” , whereas in the Zohar Pand region (some 15 km east of Ashqelon), the cost was some 0.4 $2/m” _ These costs seemed to be not very much different from that claimed for des~inated water from a dual purpose plant.
SESSION 1: DISCUSSION (Major points from the discussion
Water resources: -
following
the papers)
the need for desalination
The Water Commisssioner’s
paper was claimed
to have created the im-
pression that the major need for additional water was for domestic purposes, once sewage reclamation is completed. How far was this scheme, then, advanced? - What financial resources did the government apply to increasing the water utilization efficiency in agriculture, as compared with development of new water resources? To what degree could this efficiency be improved further, given the acknowledged achievements of Israeli agriculture in this area in the past? - Were there any statistics available on the chances of two or more consecutive drought years? One tended, in this connection, to remember the seven Biblical “lean years”. - When talking about expected water shortages, what quality, and especially, what chloride contents was considered necessary? - Could an engineering forecast be carried out on the economics of additional pumping capaicty from the Kinneret Lake (the national water reservoir), to enable fuller utilization (in the rainy season) of water accumulating in the lake in rainy years? - The Water Commissioner,answering these comments, was of the opinion, that the resources applied for increasing water utilization efficiency needed augmentation. It was realized, however, that water recovery schemes, such as the Dan Region project, which do not deliver their product before the investment has been completed, had a priority where financing was considered. Furthermore, the need for water delivery networks to new settlements was dictated by considerations over which the Water Commission had no say. - He mentioned that research existed which had figured out the cost to the growers of each additional 10 mg/l of chloride, above 170, on Shamouti orange groves. - The unpredictable occurrence of rai,ly years made it, in the Water Commissioner’s opinion, hardly possible to quantify the desirability for additional pumping capacity from the Kinneret Lake into the National Water Carrier. By lowering the lake’s water level 1 meter additionally in the summer, an additional volume of 160 million m3 would be made available for collecting rain water from the lake’s watershed. Even when including all costs involved (such as, for example, inlets fcr pumps, modified jetties, etc.), this scheme would deliver the cheapest possible water.
34
- The Water Commissioner stressed the need for basing population dispersal schemes not on a~c~~~ activities ex.cIusively , since such basis might resuit in u~des~bie large-scale ~~p~ati~~ movement in pe~~ds of Lesser water asaiiability _ - The Water C~rnrn~~s~~~er mentioned some real cost% of water in the south of Israel. In the Paran Region (some 100 km north of Eilat), .vater cost the State some 0.7 S/m” , whereas in the Zohar Pand region (some 15 km east of Ashqelon), the cost was some 0.4 $2/m” _ These costs seemed to be not very much different from that claimed for des~inated water from a dual purpose plant.