Infantile Bureaucracy

From HaAretz: "Nearly six years after Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, some of the farmers who were evacuated from their homes in Gush Katif remain without a source of income, and they say the government and its laws are at fault. The problem is that they are prohibited from building greenhouses and packing plants on the lands they purchased or were given in the wake of the disengagement. One example that illustrates the difficulties these former Gaza residents are facing is taking place in Kibbutz Zikim in the northern Negev. In 2007 the state agreed to purchase agricultural lands from the kibbutz so that it could transfer ownership to former Gush Katif farmers. But those farmers were later told that they could not build greenhouses and packing plants on the land, since Mekorot, Israel's national water company, refused to approve the construction due to the presence of drinking water wells in the area." To build anything in Israel or to do any kind of business you need dozens of different permits. I am sure no one imagined that Mekorot (in fact, it is not Mekorot but the Ministry of Health responsible for the water quality) will forbid building. No one has a complete map of wells in this country and its "radius magen" - the area where activities are forbidden for fear of contaminating the well. I did solve these kind of problems with imaginative chicken coops built in the air - on columns (no kidding). Stupid and expensive, but the bureaucrats liked them. The illustration is from a children's book, my projects are industrial.