VZCZCXRO2648
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHTV #0678/01 0841105
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241105Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5974
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 9390
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000678 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/REA and OES/ENV 
USDA FOR FAS/OCBD/DRDAD 
EPA FOR International 
AMMAN FOR ESTH - BHALLA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR ENRG IS
SUBJ:  Water and Waste: A Challenge to Israeli Policy 
 
Ref: (A) Tel Aviv 242 (B) Tel Aviv 613 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The Israeli-West Bank water crisis continues to 
deepen, with new data confirming the need for difficult choices. 
Knesset hearings have questioned government management of Israel's 
water sector.  Media debate continues on which users - consumers or 
agro-industry - will be cut back.  The situation is aggravated by 
reports claiming that illegal waste dumping is polluting the shared 
Israeli and PA aquifers.  Comment: the strong linkage between water 
and waste problems may merit addressing them in tandem in the 
Annapolis Process multilateral working groups. End Summary. 
 
Water Worries Increase 
---------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) The Israeli government and media are starting to focus on 
the critical relationship between water and waste.  Living within 
the confines of the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, between 
Lebanon's mountains and the Gulf of Aqaba, are 12 million people in 
a water-stressed environment.  As noted refs A and B, several years 
of substandard rainfall and over-pumping of groundwater resources 
have led to critically short freshwater supplies and an increasing 
risk of salinization of the natural water sources shared by Israelis 
and Palestinians.  In early March the director of the Palestinian 
Water Authority, Fadel Qawash, discussing the water situation in the 
Gaza Strip, said the results of over-pumping are already evident. 
Three-quarters of the water being pumped in Gaza from the Gaza 
aquifer now has a saline level higher than that permitted for 
drinking water. 
 
¶3. (U) On March 18 the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee 
held discussions on the water crisis.  Members of Knesset (MKs) 
leveled criticism at the government for delaying funding for two new 
desalination plants that were approved in 2000 but still not begun 
by 2006.  Israel Water Authority (IWA) Director Uri Shani responded 
that the rains that year were sufficient and the Ministry of Finance 
therefore decided it could save the 2 billion NIS cost to the 
budget.  Israel's total supply of freshwater is 984 million cubic 
meters (mcm) per year, of which 832 is natural water and 152 mcm is 
desalinated water.  Shani noted further that Lake Kinneret, Israel's 
chief freshwater reservoir, was expected to fall below the red-line 
level of minus 213.00 meters (below sea level) by July, at which 
point it is undesirable to withdraw water as it risks salinization 
of the groundwater resources, growth of duckweed, and would have 
other negative ecological impacts.  Shani predicts that the Lake 
will fall to the black-line level of minus 214.40 meters by December 
¶2008.  At this level, it will no longer be possible to pump water 
since the pumps themselves will be above the water line. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Shani noted the annual amount of usable water in Israel has 
decreased over the past 16 years by 164 mcm, from 1.34 billion cubic 
meters to 1.175 billion cubic meters.  (Note: the usable water 
calculation counts fresh and treated wastewater distribution.) 
Global warming is partly to blame, but so is greater pollution, 
which has rendered some water unusable for recycling options. 
Although plans target increasing the desalinated water supply to 550 
mcm by 2012, the IWA representative said there is little that they 
can do immediately to increase supply.  Controlling demand is the 
only option.  Defenders of the agricultural sector told the Knesset 
that their sector has already made great strides in efficiency, and 
that it is now time for consumers to learn to conserve. 
 
An Alternative View 
------------------- 
¶5. (SBU) Other analysts of the water situation take a more critical 
view of the efforts of the agricultural sector.  German 
hydrogeologist Clemens Messerschmid declared in Haaretz (Left of 
center daily, circ.75,000) on March 7 that there is plenty of water; 
the problem is mal-distribution.  Berlin receives less rain than 
Jerusalem, he observes, 550 milimeters vs 554 milimeters, and 
geologically Israel and the West Bank are ideally suited for water 
storage in aquifers.  (Comment: Clemens' logic is specious, in that 
Berlin need not rely on local rainfall as a major freshwater source 
as does Israel; major rivers provide water in Germany.  Nor is 
evaporation a major issue in Germany.  End Comment.)  Clemens notes 
that agriculture uses a greater percentage of water than consumers 
do, yet has shrunk to provide only 2 percent of Israel's GDP.  It is 
illogical for Israel to produce water-intensive crops like bananas, 
melons, and cut flowers for export to the well-watered European 
market.  Clemens also believes that Israel uses regional water 
supplies disproportionately, exacerbating the scarcity of water in 
the PA areas.  The IWA acknowledges that agriculture uses 450 mcm of 
freshwater per year - on top of all the treated wastewater.  Most 
analysts agree, nonetheless, that Israeli consumers have shown 
little restraint. Shani said per capita water consumption in 2007 
 
TEL AVIV 00000678  002 OF 002 
 
 
grew from 106 to 108 cubic meters, and that water use in Israel is 
growing by 4 percent annually. 
 
The Waste Factor 
---------------- 
¶6. (SBU) Israeli media have recently highlighted the country's 
growing problems with waste disposal, and the impact waste is having 
on water supplies.  As noted Ref B, debris from construction, 
demolition and excavation (so called C,D & E waste) now outpaces 
standard municipal trash by weight, the result of a major building 
boom during the past five years of strong economic growth.  Haaretz 
reports that much of this C,D & E waste is being trucked to 
unregistered landfills in the West Bank, and the GOI is turning a 
blind eye to the practice.  In fact, legal disposal options are few 
and expensive: no regulated, approved C, D & E landfill exists in 
Israel's northern region, and only one exists in Eastern Galilee. 
The Ministry of Environmental Protection approved on March 4 the 
establishment of a new landfill at Gush Halav to service the 
northern region and avoid the costly transport to southern Israel. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Whether dumped in Israel or the West Bank, the net impact 
on water is the same.  C,D & E waste may be filled with asbestos 
debris, toxic paints, heavy metals, and inorganic pollutants that 
leach into the soil and seep into ground water.  Given the shared 
aquifers, the environmental impact of waste disposal practices on 
either side of the Green Line will ultimately affect the other 
party.  A Haaretz editorial declared that the waste problem "should 
serve as a test case for the joint treatment by Israel and the 
Palestinians of environmental problems, including the pollution of 
groundwater by unpurified wastewater and insufficient infrastructure 
of disposal sites for household waste."  As ref A reported, Israel 
is already starting to treat Hebron-generated effluent which flows 
out of the West Bank.  A two-year study (funded partly by the 
Embassy's MERC program) of the Basor River flowing from Hebron to 
the Gaza Strip found it full of both municipal waste and industrial 
toxins from Palestinian stone and leather industries.  Israel has 
built a treatment plant to handle the waste, but the report 
estimates over 45 percent of the pollutants seep into ground water 
before the river reaches the plant. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶8. (SBU) The USG is already closely engaged with Israel and the PA 
on water management issues through the Trilateral Water Working 
Group established in 1996, after Oslo.  In the context of the 
Annapolis Process working groups addressing water and infrastructure 
(among other) issues, consideration should be given to establishing 
a parallel working group to address regional waste disposal issues. 
Alternatively, the mandate of the TWWG could be broadened to include 
the inter-related waste and water issues. 
 
JONES