Water Policy in Israel

This book aims to focus on the policy of the water sector in Israel. It brings together 16 chapters written by experts in their field. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the policy dimension. In this introduction chapter, I draw the linkage among them besides providing the justification for this book and describing the water sector in Israel in a concise way.

Israel is considered by many as a paragon of sound water management (e.g., Postal, Last oasis: facing water scarcity, Norton, New York, 1997). Due to the severe water scarcity Israel faces and the relatively high levels of human and social capital it can muster, Israel has successfully implemented policies that are at the forefront of the water policy field. These policies enabled Israel to develop an advanced postindustrial economy and to supply a burgeoning population with high-quality water at the tap on the basis of scarce and contested water resources. Moreover, Israel has succeeded in providing water to an advanced agricultural sector whose product per unit of water has risen rapidly in the past 30 years.

The question of what explains policy changes has been of much scholarly and practical interest. Of no less interest is the question of what explains long periods of policy stalemate, especially in situations where the risks generated by prolonged inaction due to policy impasses are obvious. This chapter attempts to explain the stalemate in Israel’s water policy during the two decades between 1980 and 2000, a stalemate that persisted despite consensus on the gravity of the status quo, the inadequacy of existing policies and the risks of the continuing impasse. The chapter also tries to identify the factors that account for policy changes in the 2000s. We analyze both policy impasse and policy change using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) theoretical frameworks developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (Policy change and learning: an advocacy coalition approach. Westview Press, Boulder, 1993).

The provision of water to agriculture, as well as to the other sectors of the economy, rests mainly on two principal foundations. The first is the 1959 Water Law, stipulating that all the water sources in the country are publicly owned and indicating that there are no private property rights over water or its use. The second foundation is the national system and the North-South Carrier around which the water system is built. Based on these constructs, Israel managed to provide water to agriculture, since its early days, not only in the rainy north, but also in the dry southern parts of the country. In this chapter I look into the major issues that concern the use of water in the agricultural sector in Israel.

For the first several decades of Israel’s existence, water left in streams was considered a waste of a precious resource. Streams themselves were seen as hazards to be managed, with little perceived value other than serving as convenient conduits for disposal of sewage and other unwanted effluents. As a result, the country’s streams were largely denuded, polluted, and rerouted to reduce flood risks. Legal, institutional, and political frameworks that have emerged over the past 20 years promoting rehabilitation of the country’s streams signal a shift in public perception and public policy. In addition, recent advances in desalination infrastructure adding substantial quantities of freshwater and improved sewage treatment standards further raise the prospects of a new deal for Israel’s streams. After years of intensive development and chronic water scarcity, however, several challenges still stand in the way of stream rehabilitation. This chapter reviews the causes of degradation of Israel’s streams, recent policy measures to promote their rehabilitation, and the primary obstacles still facing actual rehabilitation.

Wastewater reuse for agricultural irrigation is becoming a common and rapidly increasing practice in arid and semiarid regions around the world (Friedler, Water Policy 3:29–39, 2001). This new water source is particularly important in regions with limited water resources where increased urban demand is met by reducing water supply for irrigation, causing economic and cultural stress in the agricultural sector. The introduction of reclaimed wastewater in the water balance of a country is subjected to three main issues from the supply side:

Desalination was first developed in Israel in 1965, when Mekorot, Israel’s national water utility, established the first seawater desalination facility using vaporization technology in an effort to address the chronic thirst of the city of Eilat, located at the extreme southern tip of Israel on the Red Sea. A highly energy-intensive process, Mekorot looked for an alternative, energy-saving process, which it found in the reverse osmosis (RO) technology developed in the United States. In the early 1970s after the energy crisis of the Yom Kippur War, Mekorot began installing small-scale brackish water RO-desalination plants and, within the decade, established 15 desalination plants that supplied water to the Arava valley residents. Increasing demand and decreasing supply of freshwater in the coming years encouraged Mekorot to develop seawater desalination as an additional source, and the first plant (which desalinated a mixture of seawater and the reject brine from desalinated brackish water) commenced operation in 1997 in Eilat In this chapter we deal with different issues concerning desalination of seawater in Israel.

In recent years, groundwater (GW) is becoming increasingly important due to population growth, preparation for climate change, flood control, and above all water quality awareness. While in far and recent history most of the water for agricultural and domestic use was of surface origin, in the recent few decades, the portion of groundwater used in many countries is significantly higher than the portion of surface water used. This makes the study of groundwater and related fields such as vadose zone hydrology, subsurface contaminant fate and transport of high importance.

This chapter outlines the long-run profile of market-based regulations that have been adopted in Israel over the years in attempting to cope with water scarcity, on one hand, and with increasing water demand, on the other. Particular attention is given to the relative efficiency of applying combined quotas and pricing mechanisms for regulating water use within the agricultural sector, the dominant user of water resources. Finally, we discuss the added benefit from trade when coupled with development of water technologies that increases water resources and water quality and indirect third-party effects of market-based regulations.

Facing chronic water scarcity, Israel has invested heavily in supply augmentation, including cloud seeding, reclamation and reuse of wastewater, and more recently large-scale seawater desalination. Given the physical and technological limitations as well as the economic costs of supply augmentation, Israel has also pursued a wide array of demand management policies. While both supply and demand management policies have always been pursued concomitantly, the relative emphasis placed on each has shifted over the course of the country’s development. In the early years of the country, emphasis was placed on development of existing supplies and large infrastructure projects such as the National Water Carrier. By the 1970s and 1980s, all renewable freshwater resources were exploited, and the focus was more on demand management. Failure to reduce demand, especially during extended droughts, such as those in the 1990s, led to overwithdrawals and a renewed focus on supply augmentation, which, given declines in the cost of desalination, again took precedence at the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, given the costs of desalination, as well as the various environmental and even security impacts associated with it, demand management is still a critical element in Israel’s overall water management strategy.

The Dead Sea is a hypersaline terminal lake formed about 14,000 years ago along the central part of the Dead Sea Rift after the desiccation of its precursor Lake Lisan. The Dead Sea drains an area of approximately 40,000 km² with the Jordan River as its main source of inflow (Fig. 12.1). While in the past the Dead Sea level changes were caused by climate changes, in recent years its level is controlled primarily by anthropogenic activity. At present the Dead Sea level is approximately 425 m below sea level (BSL) while the lake’s deepest point at 730 m BSL is the deepest terrestrial spot on Earth. This chapter summarizes the principal technical and environmental findings of the Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance Project. This is the main solution that is being currently discussed that can potentially resolve some of the issues the Dead Sea is facing.

According to climate models, the steady accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is expected to cause global warming and variations in precipitation distribution over the globe. Since 1750 the concentration of CO₂ has increased by 31%, currently rising at a rate of about 0.4% per year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Impacts adaptation and vulnerability, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001) estimates a consequential increase of 1.4–5.8°C in the global average surface temperature during the period between 1990 and 2100. During the twenty-first century, the average precipitation is expected to increase in most of the world. However, simulation models seem to concur that in the Mediterranean basin, rainfall is about to decline. Israel is located in the eastern part of the basin – an area with extraordinary sensitivity to climate changes due to the confluence of several different climates, particularly the cold, rainy European climate in the north and the subtropic African conditions in the south. Recent studies focusing on Israeli climate have identified an increase in the frequency of extreme temperatures, as well as in extreme weather events. Ben-Gai et al. (Theor Appl Appl Climatol, 6164, 163–177, 1999a) found considerable spatial variations in the annual precipitation distribution. We demonstrate in this chapter the impact of such change in the distribution on the winter agricultural sector in Israel.

Various studies have shown that warm climatic spans in the history and prehistory of the Middle East have often engendered periods of drought and famine. These studies were based on profiles of proxy data such as changes of sea and lake levels, tree and stalagmite rings, and pollen ratios in lake and sea bottom sediments. Assuming that the past is a reliable key to the future, it may be predicted that ongoing global warming will cause a reduction in precipitation throughout the Mediterranean Region. In Israel the supply of future demand for water is based largely upon desalination of seawater and reuse of wastewater. In this chapter we demonstrate the impact of such an uncertainty on the future of safe water supply in Israel.

Preparation of a master plan for a transboundary watercourse serves as a touchstone for cooperation between two conflicting entities. It enables decision making under any scenario: coexistence, cooperation, or partnership. It weighs the value of each scenario and allows policy makers to make decisions based on value judgments. It improves tools for grassroots democracy, stakeholder involvement, and collaborative decision making (heterarchy). In the worse case, it serves as a platform for discussion instead of acrimony; in the best case, a platform for cooperative river restoration, improved planning, and increased biological diversity. In this chapter we demonstrate implementation of such master plan for such a trans boundary river in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The variables which determine the international dimensions of Israel's policies are heavily influenced by changes in domestic demand and supply. As this list of variables continues to grow, Israel's efforts to ensure its portion of its internationally-shared water resources need to be adjusted within the context of its geo-strategic interests and positions, its international commitments and the growing global concern with water issues. This chapter highlights the main characteristics of Israel's foreign policies in the water sector, how they have evolved, and presents conclusions which point to possible future trends.

Water scarcity is a “fact of life” in Israel, where demand for water routinely exceeds its supply. The commonly agreed-upon policy to bring demand and supply into balance failed mainly due to population increase. In addition, he years 2001–2005 saw the most severe drought to hit Israel in a century. In this chapter we discuss how different water issues were dealt over time by the Water Authority in Israel.

A solid and good water policy is meant to eliminate any reasonable chance that such a scenario will occur. This, if happens, is a bad outcome. But is that a direct consequence of bad policy? The question that this book has tried to raise is if Israel has a solid and rational water policy in the face of the country’s unique and specific water issues/concerns. In this chapter I try to summarize the main ideas presented in the book and look into the future water policy issues that Israel will face.