VZCZCXRO4658
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHTV #0918/01 1131402
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221402Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6417
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 9575
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000918 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/REA and OES/ENV 
USDA FOR FAS/OCBD/DRDAD 
AMMAN FOR ESTH - BHALLA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR IS PA JO
SUBJ:  ISRAEL'S WATER POLICY OPTIONS DEBATED 
 
Ref: (A) Tel Aviv 242  (B) Tel Aviv 678 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Israel is debating options on dealing with its 
critical water shortage.  Until new and greater supply comes 
on-stream from desalination plants in 2009, the choice is 
essentially how to share the pain.  Agriculture, the biggest user by 
sector, is unlikely to shoulder the bulk of the hardship.  Consumer 
and commercial users will see fees rise and public use of water will 
be sharply curtailed.  Israel's current 350 million cubic meter 
(mcm) shortfall would largely have been filled had GOI plans in 2001 
to build more desalination capacity been acted upon. 
Finger-pointing on who dropped the ball continues, while Water 
Authority management claims it has the situation in hand.  End 
Summary. 
 
Few Pleasant Options 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Israeli government and society are debating measures to 
address the country's critical water shortage that post outlined 
previously (reftels).  The Israeli Water Authority (IWA) expects 
Lake Kinneret to reach its lowest level ever next year, while both 
mountain and coastal aquifers will drop beneath red-line levels over 
the next two years, resulting in increased - and likely irreversible 
- salinity.  Reports from the Palestinian Water Authority claim this 
is already occurring in Gaza, and an IWA water quality expert 
confirmed last week that only 40 percent of Israel's coastal aquifer 
now yields good quality water. 
 
¶3. (SBU) On April 13 the Director General of the IWA, Uri Shani, 
presented an emergency water program to GOI cabinet ministers.  It 
consisted essentially of persuading the public to economize on water 
use, raising water prices to all users, and rationing water for some 
private uses.  Supply will be cut altogether for public venues such 
as boulevard medians and municipal parks, which IWA estimates use 
140 mcm annually.  Overall supervision will be tightened and a close 
watch kept on consumption.  A maximum use ceiling will be set for 
agriculture, and financial resources will be spent to expand the 
facilities for treating sewage water into "greywater" useable for 
agriculture. The cost of the whole program would be about NIS 1.5 
billion (US$ 425 million). 
 
¶4. (SBU) Some of the measures debated in the Cabinet evoked protests 
from ministers who believe their sectors are being 
disproportionately harmed. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon 
defended his sector's large share in water consumption (60 percent). 
 Although agriculture is the largest single user of water 
distributed in Israel, the use of treated wastewater accounts for a 
large share of this.  Israeli agriculture uses over 1.2 billion cm 
of water annually, but in the past two decades has moved from using 
mostly fresh water to using a majority of treated wastewater; in 
2007 farmers used 615 mcm of greywater versus 565 mcm of freshwater. 
 Shani's plans allocate 454 mcm of freshwater to agriculture in 2008 
- only 40 percent of the fresh water agriculture drew 20 years ago. 
While Israeli agriculture uses about the same total amount of water 
as thirty years ago, it is twelve times more productive with it. 
Simchon suggested industry and other fast-growing water users are 
more to blame than agriculture for Israel's water deficit. 
 
Present Realities 
----------------- 
¶5. (SBU) Opponents of high allocation to agriculture note that 
agriculture now accounts for only 2 percent of Israel's GDP, and 
thus does not merit such a large share of this precious resource. 
The majority of Israel's US$44 billion in export earnings are 
technology driven today, and some believe keeping high-tech workers 
productive is a wiser investment than exporting melons.  Minister 
Simchon and others say the answer is to increase supply, not just 
suppress demand, and propose that each Mediterranean coastal town be 
obliged to build desalination plants within its municipal boundaries 
to supply water to residents of the town.  He believes 
municipalities can supply water cheaper than the national water 
company Mekorot by attracting Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) 
facilities erected by private investors who sell the desalinated 
water for a fixed period of years to pay off their investment before 
ownership of the desalination facility is transferred to the city. 
Water supply beyond what the city needs would be sold to Mekorot at 
fixed rates for distribution elsewhere in Israel. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The IWA office charged with demand management told ESTOff 
privately it is fine-tuning the action program, which will include 
sharply higher fees for all users, cut-backs on allocations of water 
by sector, and several outright bans on use.  Fees per cubic meter 
of water supplied to private consumers will rise by over 16 percent, 
water to industrial and commercial users by over 10 percent, and 
agriculture by only 2 to 3 percent.  When asked why agriculture, 
 
TEL AVIV 00000918  002 OF 002 
 
 
which already enjoys preferentially lower cm rates, receives such 
favored treatment, IWA officials responded there are political as 
well as economic purposes to land development.  While "making the 
desert bloom" is part of the cultural ethos of Israel, working the 
land is also statement of ownership and possession. 
 
In Regional Perspective 
----------------------- 
¶7. (SBU) Despite its many problems, Israel's water situation looks 
better than that of its neighbors, whose needs will also impact on 
Israeli water availability. Israel transfered almost 40 mcm of water 
to PA areas in 2007. Palestinians on average consume about one 
quarter the amount of water Israelis do, and water sources within 
Palestinian areas are generally less reliable, leading to greater 
demand to import water from Israel.  Although Israeli and PA Water 
Authorities have discussed sharing desalinated water resources, the 
political vulnerability of this does not make it an attractive 
option to either side, either from reliability of supply or 
reliability of payment perspectives.  Estimates of inefficiency and 
leakage in the PWA distribution system range up to 45 percent.  The 
IWA confirms that Israel will transfer 35 mcm to Jordan in 2008, in 
accordance with Israel's commitment under the terms of the 1994 
peace treaty with Jordan.  Amman faces greater hardship than Israel, 
according to reports, having received only 57 percent of the average 
annual rainfall this past winter.  Amman itself needs 100 mcm for 
the year, but expects to have only 70 mcm available. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: Measures taken by Israeli authorities to address 
the current water situation, even though domestically targeted, are 
unlikely to avoid impacting Israel's water policy toward the 
Palestinian Authority. The GOI may face increasing domestic pressure 
to curb exports, while being pressed by the PA and donors to share 
its growing desalination capacity. 
 
JONES