ute in Haifa. Dr. Jack Silverman, one of the researchers involved, says they are trying to assess what effect the high salt concentrations will have on wildlife at the bottom of the sea.
“Along the bottom, there are very important processes that go on with respect to the survival of the ecological system,” he noted.
“Our working assumption is that the concentration may influence these processes and, according to the initial findings, there is an effect,” he said.
“It’s not the desalination that’s the problem,” the Water Authority responded. “It is one of the solutions for adding to the water supply, which also allows for rehabilitating aquifers in terms of quality and quantity.”
So far, desalination plants have been built with almost zero public opposition. But the situation is different in the case of the plant planned for Western Galilee.
Residents there are campaigning against having a desalination plant built near Regba and Lohamei Hageta’ot, two kibbutzim in the Acre area, north of Haifa. They worry about having an industrial-type plant near their agricultural fields and homes.
Citizens are concerned that the landscape would change and the plant would create a lot of noise and pollution. They fear the area would then be used to build even more industrial plants. An experts’ report they prepared recommended instead that the plant be built in the Haifa Bay area, which is already industrialized.
“The northern region is really in need of another water source,” said Gil. “We have been delaying the establishment of a plant in Galilee for years due to the opposition of residents, and now we are looking for alternative sites.”
Gil said of the Haifa option: “We need a plant that can pump water from a clean part of the sea and not in an area such as that bay, where there are still problems with pollution. What is clear is that wherever the new plant is built, it will take at least five years to complete it. And that will leave residents of the north still dependent upon the number of rain clouds hovering over Israel."