I can’t really think of any other place in the world that pays attention to the level of a lake as much as they do in Israel.  The water level in the Kinneret is watched by like hawk by conservationists and Mekorot, the Israel national water carrier.  The level is checked on almost a daily basis to determine how much water is left to be pumped and what its doing to the ecosystem in the lake itself.

This summer is an especially terrible summer in Israel.  A few years of light rainfall has resulted in the level of water dropping to whats considered the ‘lower red line’ 213 meters below sea level.  Granted there is still water to pump, but this is what has been set as the limit before major damage starts happening.  Water can still be pumped but only for a little longer.  Once the ‘black’ line is hit, the water will fall below the mouths of the pumps designed to carry the water and then nothing can be pumped.  It’s actually expected to hit this line before the end of summer, so there are going to be real problems soon.

In addition to the Kinneret, Israel also uses water from aquafiers under the soil for the purpose of supplying water.   Unfortunately, with the lack of rainfall these too have fallen to extremely low levels.  This is causing the levels of salinity to rise and with much more damage, they may become unusable without crazy amounts of rainfall in the coming winters.

Only 2 things are going to solve this.  Conservation is the first.  That is, relying on the good will of people to do the right thing or for the cost of using water to be raised so people will lower their consumption levels to
save money.   I’m sure money will be more of a motivating factor.  Asking people nicely with no visible consequence results in much slacking.

The second thing is building all those desalination plants they have been talking about.  the only sad part is, they wont start coming online for a few years even if they started digging tomorrow, but its a step in the right direction.  The ocean is, for practical purposes, an inexhaustible water supply, and if Israel can turn that salty water into potable water for their country, they wont need to rely on the Kinneret or the aquafiers nearly as much and they can heal and no one will have to pray for rain…..although it couldn’t hurt

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