I would say that the main problem is the destruction of the human capital in water engineering. The sole water engineering course in Technion was closed down about a decade ago and no young engineers are coming to the profession. The deficit was covered by the influx of Russian engineers a decade ago, but they are getting old too. The basic water planning organisms like TAHAL were disbanded and not replaced. We have no Water Master Plan for the last five or six years. Existing engineers survive selling domestic water purifiers, which are all snake oil remedies.
The second problem is the long term mismanagement of the resources. Hydrological data shows that the pumping of water had already exceeded the level of what is termed in hydrology the “safe yield” in the mid-sixties. Then followed the salinization process in practically all the major aquifers. On lowering the water table sea water and geological brines burst upward into the fresh water body. Over the years the demand for water has steadily increased. For example, in the past 12 years the increase in the demand was nearly 40 million cubic meters per year annually.
Overpumping and sewage reuse is causing the following effects:
a) Salinization by salt water intrusion, which eliminates at least 10 million cubic meters per year annually, thus reducing the availability of fresh water sources. As an example, nearly 20% of the coastal aquifer cannot be utilized due to salinity.
b) The volume of the operational reservoir has been reduced. This year the Sea of Galilee has been emptied to an all-time low exceeding the red danger line. The major source of the mountain aquifer is in a similar situation and has also almost reached the red line. And finally, in the major coastal aquifer, the reservoir has been reduced by several billion cubic meters of water.
c) Pollution: In municipal water uses some 100-120 milligrams of chlorine is added, with over 200 milligrams of total salts per liter. The re-use of sewage water and the infiltration of unused sewage have added over 200,000 tons of salts to the aquifers every year. Moreover, they have added nitrates, soluble organic materials, heavy metals and other chemicals, including carcinogenic ones. The exhaustion of the water resources and the recycling of sewage leaves no leaching or cleaning of the aquifers. In effect, this situation will lead to the gradual and complete destruction of water resources.
Technology will save us: Desalination. The problem is you need competent bureaucracy to implement it, which is not available.
12 comments:
I thought TAHAL was a private organization, not a government body.
Anyway, the solution is to open a water engineering course at a second tier university and not at the MIT of Israel. The larger solution is to put the entire water system into a self-financing government department which can sponsor such a program.
In fact, now that I think about the matter a specific water engineering course at the Technion isn't necessary. A national water ministry could sign a cooperative agreement whereby a student can attend the Technion for lower division engineering courses, and could then attend classes at the water ministry for his 3 & 4th year. Classes taken at the water ministry would then transfer over to the Technion for a degree.
Whatever system of training you choose it will need a bureaucratic patron to keep it in existence.
A single ministry can also handle the necessary planning. Having a single ministry would also follow my idea of having all municipal water systems across the country owned and managed by a single agency.
The other option is to sell all the water assets and let entrepreneurs make drinking water and sell it to the public. Nochi Dankner might become even richer.
I guess drinking your shit-water and piss-water over and over and over again isn't too pleasant, huh Jews?
Serves you right for stealing so much of the available potable freshwater from all the Arab nations which surround you.
Did I mention that there is a very old Russian folktale (or was it Ukrainian?) which stated that too many Jews living in a single concentrated area causes droughts and 'bad water' to start appearing? Must be all that negative Jewish energy or something - it's so bad that it's enough to poison the local water ("Jews poison wells," remember?) and interrupt the water cycle of the area where so many Jews live.
Aquarius, Israel is giving the surrounding Arabs water to meet their needs, often free of charge.
Farming productivity might be the best way to increase water efficiency. For instance, it takes 10 times as much water to produce a food-calorie from beef as from grain production. Aquafarming has become big in China today and may be a better investment than salinization plants. In the Middle East, some countries like Pakistan use 90% of their water for agriculture. So moving people's diets away from water-intensive meat & poultry production down the food chain to more grain-oriented diets can probably have a faster effect on achieving water security than trying to pump or import more of it. Food security depends on water usage efficiency in an industrial country like Israel shouldn't lose focus. A man dying of thirst in the desert would take a glass of water instead of a diamond.
Lester Brown's book is free here and should be a (2nd) bible for water-insecure countries.
www.http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB3/data.htm
better link:
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB3/index.htm
There is no way in hell I am going to advocate a low meat diet to those who want to move up in this world. Besides, I don't endorse the environmental world view pushed by the author of that eco-book.
"So moving people's diets away from water-intensive meat & poultry production down the food chain to more grain-oriented diets can probably have a faster effect on achieving water security than trying to pump or import more of it"
Overconsumption of grains/gluten causes the rates of mental illness to skyrocket in human beings.
I guess drinking your shit-water and piss-water over and over and over again isn't too pleasant, huh Jews?
My friend, your ignorance is appaling. Water is recycled everywhere. The City of London, for example, gets its water from the River Thames. The water has passed by 7 (seven) uses or cycles when it arrives to London. I hope you are not living in Amsterdam: the water there has passed by more purification plants that I can count. "Pure" water is an illusion, everything is recycled in this earth. Your flesh (and mine) will feed the worms too.
J said...
I hope you are not living in Amsterdam: the water there has passed by more purification plants that I can count.
Your comment gives me an idea of how densely populated Europe really is. A few years ago in a fit of snobbishness I bought the New York Times, and in one of the inner sections of that paper I learned that one of Spain's cities (Madrid?) was as densely populated as Shanghai.
Or I could be remembering something that just isn't so.
Since this post is still active I would like to point out that English speaking Israelis can come to Arizona and attend ASU if they need to learn about water engineering. If you click here you will see the various types of civil engineering degrees from ASU's main campus, and if you click here you will see the specialized version of the civil engineering degree for "environmental engineers".
The ASU school of engineering main page is located here.
"Water is recycled everywhere."
Nope. Water is only recycled in areas that are massively overpopulated...places like Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, England, etc.
Water is only recycled in areas that are massively overpopulated
Overpopulation is a fact of life. What else do you propose, that these countries simply stop having children in order to decrease the population.
Thinking of the pop-density of the Netherlands, it seems ludicrous that immigrants should be welcomed into that country.
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