Report from Gilo

 

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE!!

The End of Israel’s Drought

Water, water every where, nor any drop to drink. Thus spake the eponymous Ancient Mariner in Coleridge’s famous poem, only he was referring to sea-water and we are referring to rain water with which Israel has been greatly blessed recently. In fact, last week, on 4^th February to be exact, Israel’s Water Authority officially declared the national water crisis to be over and lifted its “severe drought advisory.” At the same time it warned Israelis that although the situation is now stable they must not become complacent lest Israel finds itself in the same drought situation again. Israel has suffered from much dryer than normal winters for the past seven years, resulting in alarmingly low levels of water in the national reservoirs, especially the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) but, happily, it is now within six feet of its capacity and will doubtless fill the rest of the way when the heavy snow which has fallen on the Golan heights melts later in the year.

Desalination Plants

Now, sea water also comes into our theme as Israel has become a world leader in the establishment of desalination plants and during the past seven years has established three large plants along the Mediterranean coast at Ashkelon, Palmachim and Hadera that are now providing the nation with nearly half of its drinking water, with two more plants scheduled to begin working in the near future. The seawater desalination plant at Hadera, which uses the method known as reverse osmosis, is the largest of its kind in the world.

Water for Agriculture

Another method of coping with the water shortages which plague the Middle East and which has been used by Israel since the 1970’s, is the use of waste water for the irrigation of crops. In fact, half of Israel’s agricultural needs are supplied by recycled waste water. Drip irrigation, whereby crops are watered without water loss due to evaporation, as happens with spraying methods, is yet another water-saving method, invented and pioneered by Israel. Israeli exports of its various water-saving technologies total 1.5 billion Dollars a year. The help with irrigation techniques that Israel gives freely to many arid and undeveloped countries round the world, sadly, goes largely unnoticed.

A New Kind of Weather

While on the endlessly fascinating topic of weather, just as much talked about in Israel as the U.K. we have discovered a new kind. While looking, last week, at various internet sites that give long range weather forecasts for Jerusalem we saw that the next day would see us receiving not only, rain, sleet, snow and hail but also graupel. Thinking this had to be a misprint, we tried another site only to find that again, we were being threatened with this previously unheard of type of weather. The dictionary showed no such word so we resorted to the indispensable Google, where in Wikipedia we found – “ GRAUPEL –(also called soft hail or snow pellets) refers to precipitation that forms when super-cooled droplets of water are collected and freeze on falling … “ Sure enough, when out with the dogs the following morning, the stinging hail that was lashing our faces and greatly upsetting the dogs, suddenly changed to something softer and less painful that, until washed away by the rain which soon followed it, lay on the ground in heaps, looking like millions of miniature golf balls.

SPRING GREENERY

All this water falling on us in various forms is resulting in the most brilliant greenery, masses of pink and white almond blossom in full bloom and myriads of wild flowers, bursting forth on every patch of waste ground. At the moment, it is impossible to get accommodation in the northern part of Israel at the weekends and not easy in the week, as Israelis flock there to see the gushing rivers, streams and waterfalls and the wonderful displays of wildflowers. This winter our prayers for rain that began after Sukkot, have most certainly been answered.

Norman and Lola Cohen