‘Extremely rare event:’ Miles-long microalgae bloom knocks out most of Israel’s desalination plants
Five of Israel’s six coastal desalination plants shut down as a rare microalgae bloom spread along the Mediterranean coast, Mekorot said.
- On Sunday, five of Israel's six coastal desalination plants shut down due to a microalgae bloom, according to Mekorot, Israel's national water company. By Thursday, some facilities had partially resumed operations, though only one was running at full capacity.
- A miles-long microalgae bloom, believed to have originated in the Nile Delta, traveled northward with sea currents up Israel's coast. Experts noted the event involved unusual factors, including a sea storm that raised temperatures to 86 Fahrenheit and above.
- Israel's government water system has "stepped in to close the gap" caused by the closures, Mekorot's Lior Gutman said. Authorities pumped water from the Galilee and activated groundwater wells to maintain supply.
- Lior Gutman stressed that in roughly 99% of cases, there has been no drinking water shortage. Edo Bar-Zeev, a Ben-Gurion University associate professor, noted this is "the first time I saw something in this extent."
- With desalination providing at least 65% of Israel's drinking water, experts warn the system faces risks from climate change, cyber threats, and oil spills. The event exposes vulnerabilities in relying on centralized, technical water solutions.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Algae crisis forces Israel to pay 50% more for desalinated water
Water Authority raises payments to private plants to about 4 shekels per cubic meter to keep them operating despite contamination, exposing vulnerabilities in Israel’s fully privatized desalination system
A kilometers-long bloom of microalgae in the Mediterranean Sea has been blamed for the temporary shutdown of many of Israel's main desalination plants this week, threatening their main source of drinking water.
The Tahrir family has recently stood in the face of an unprecedented environmental crisis. A sudden influx of the Mediterranean water crippled microscopic algae and disrupted 5 of the six desalination plants on which the Israeli water economy depends.
Desalination shutdown threatens Israeli vegetable crops
Five of the six desalination plants along Israel's coastline south of Hadera were shut down on Tuesday morning due to high seawater turbidity, putting irrigation supplies for vegetable growers in Nitzana near the Egyptian border under pressure. The shutdown is affecting approximately 20,000 dunams of…
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