Water Supply and Sanitation in Israel - Water Resources - Brackish Water Desalination

Brackish Water Desalination

In addition to these large plants, there are around 30 small mostly brackish water desalination plants that desalinate about 30 million m3/year. Most of these installations are in the Arava and the Negev. The largest of them (~11 million m3/year) is located in Eilat and desalinates brackish water and Red Sea water for use of the city's inhabitants. The first desalination installations were established in Israel in 1965.

According to other reports Israel desalinated only around 16,500 cubic meter/day (m3/d) of brackish water in 2008, corresponding to 6 million m3/year. In 2008 the government planned to increase this capacity more than 13-fold to somewhere between 220,000 m3/d and 274,000 m3/d by 2012. Some plants are intended to help to rehabilitate the southern part of the coastal aquifer, which has been adversely affected by salinity due to overextraction. In addition, a desalination facility with a capacity of 54,800 m3/d–82,200 m3/d is planned in the Western Galilee. In Nitzanim in southern Israel, a plan is being studied for increasing the size of the 9,600 m3/d desalination plant.