Israel refills the Sea of Galilee, supplying Jordan on the way

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Posted January 30, 2023 • Last updated 26 minutes ago • 3 minutes read

Join the conversation An aerial view shows an Israeli flag at the Eshkol reservoir which is part of the national water carrier project in northern Israel January 23, 2023. Photo by Ronen Zvulun /Reuters Article content

TIBERIAS – When the floodgates are open, a torrent of water pours into a dry riverbed and rushes to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a biblical lake in northern Israel lost to drought and the growing population around it.

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The water is fresh, high quality, expensive. Desalinated from the Mediterranean and transported across the country, awaiting orders to refill the lake should it shrink again.

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This new network will also allow Israel to double the amount of water it sells to neighboring Jordan under a broader water-for-energy deal forged through a workable, if often conflicting, relationship.

The Sea of Galilee, on whose waters Christians believe Jesus walked, is Israel’s main reservoir and a major tourist attraction. Hotels and campgrounds line the perimeter surrounded by lush hills. It feeds the Jordan, which flows south to the Dead Sea.

After a heat wave or heavy rain, the level of the lake makes national headlines. Alarms have been raised regularly over the past decade after protracted droughts and receding coastlines.

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So Israel built a chain of desalination plants along its Mediterranean coast, putting it in the unlikely position of having a water surplus, a bright spot in an arid region extremely vulnerable to climate change.

“All the extra water that (the plants) produce, we will be able to take it north and into the Sea of Galilee using the national water supply system,” said Yoav Barkay, who runs the national airline at state-owned Mekorot.

On a dry, sunny day in late January that felt more like spring than winter, he was standing by a pool above the lake.

“In this environment of climate change, you don’t know what to expect next year and the year after that,” he said. “In principle, we are no longer dependent on rain for the water supply.”

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WATER AND PEACE

The refill system could be used more frequently as water exports to Jordan increase, he said. According to Mekorot, it can raise the lake level by half a meter every year.

Water was an important part of the peace treaty the neighbors signed in 1994. The agreement stipulated that Israel would supply Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of potable water annually. That was doubled at the end of 2021.

Both countries are actively involved in the pact, although they accuse each other of exacerbating the broader problem of water scarcity by managing their shared and linked rivers.

Jordanian and Israeli officials have traded blame for river gauges, reservoirs and the progress of a separate plan to desalinate water from the southern Red Sea – all potentially high-profile issues in a tense region where water is scarce.

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But there has been progress.

About a year ago, Israel and Jordan agreed to work together on a project in which Jordan will build 600 megawatts of solar power generation capacity to be exported to Israel in exchange for the additional water supply.

Jordan’s water and irrigation minister at the time said that climate change and an influx of refugees were exacerbating Jordan’s water problems, but that there were opportunities for regional cooperation to solve them.

Construction of a pipeline is now underway to again double the volume that will reach Jordan, industry officials told Reuters.

That means around 200 million cubic meters of water – the same amount consumed by Israel’s five largest cities combined – will be delivered to Jordan.

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The national water carrier is currently empty and undergoing seasonal repairs and modernization. At an intersection in northern Israel, engineers are working on a pipe large enough to stand inside.

They are adding a new line that flies to the city of Beit Shean and from there east to the Jordanian border. Mekorot hopes to complete it in 2026.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which works with Jordan on water security, says it is one of the world’s most water-scarce countries, with renewable water supplies meeting about two-thirds of needs and groundwater being used twice as fast as it can be replenished. (Edit by Andrew Heavens)

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