wather problem? if they can why can't we?

Apr. 19, 2003
Briny water desalination plant inaugurated in South
By DAVID RUDGE

A desalination plant that is to supply purified water to communities and hotels around the Dead Sea was inaugurated in Naveh Zohar on Monday by Mekorot and the Tamar regional council.

The unit, which can produce four million cubic meters of purified water a year, taps underground sources water with a high saline content and converts it, using the reverse osmosis principle, into high-quality drinking water that is also good for agricultural and industrial purposes.
Construction of the plant cost NIS 23 million, and a further NIS 28 million was invested in laying pipelines and establishing pumping stations and storage ponds.

National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky, regional council chairman Amnon Fischman, and senior Mekorot officials were among the guests at the inauguration ceremony.

Mekorot chairman Uri Saguy said the new plant represents the company's efforts to meet burgeoning demand for water in the domestic, agricultural, and tourism fields.

The Tamar regional council area includes farming communities, the Dead Sea hotels complex, and the Ein Bokek area.

The region gets its water from a series of small desalination units that draw water from briny wells, and not from the national water network. Mekorot director-general Amos Epstein said the new plant, which has a far larger production capacity, would be able to meet all high-quality fresh water requirements in the region.

He said the new plant is one of several similar projects which by the end of 2005 would produce an additional 20 million cubic meters of purified water from briny sources.

The new plant at Naveh Zohar has to cope with the fact that the water drawn from the underground sources is not only saline but extremely hot, reaching up to 42 degrees centigrade.

It must be cooled, chlorinated, and fluoridated before it can be supplied to consumers.