Tag Archives: Sea of Galilee

Israel sees desalination as Sea of Galilee’s savior

A man walks towards an island that has materialized at the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

By Dan Williams

DEGANIA DAM, Israel (Reuters) – Some 2,000 years ago, Jesus walked across the Sea of Galilee, according to the Bible. Today, that doesn’t require a miracle.

Long periods of drought and over-pumping have brought the lake low. A reedy island has materialized at its southern edge, and will soon be a peninsula. Holiday-makers and fishermen teeter over expanding boggy beaches to reach the waterline.

The depletion imperils Israel’s biggest reservoir, starving the River Jordan and Dead Sea. It also diminishes a landmark that rivals Jerusalem as a major draw for Christian pilgrims.

Israel sees a solution in desalination, in which it is a world leader. It plans to double the amount of Mediterranean seawater it processes and pipe half of it 75 kilometers (47 miles) to the Galilee.

Rocks are seen above the low-water level of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Rocks are seen above the low-water level of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

“We are doing this in order to save our nature, to fight global warming, to prevent the effect, the devastating effect, of global warming on the Sea of Galilee, and also to create a very significant water storage for the State of Israel,” Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who holds the cabinet water portfolio, told Reuters.

Noting the lake’s significance to Christians given the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracle-working there, Steinitz joked: “If he is coming back, we will make sure that he will have to make a real effort to walk on the water once more.”

Environmentalists welcome the move. Last full in 2004, the Galilee has dropped six meters (18 feet). It may be just weeks away from hitting a “black line” – 214.87 meters below global sea level – where it risk permanent contamination and pressure change from sediment.

Israelis hope winter rains will hold that off until the first desalinated water is piped in, next year.

PRESSURE

Preserving the lake would free Israel to offer Jordan more water under a 1994 peace treaty.

“If there is irreversible damage done to the Sea of Galilee, to the Jordan, to this whole ecosystem, Israel’s enemies could use it against her,” said David Parsons, vice president of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, which oversees evangelical outreach to Israel.

“It could also affect Christian tourism to the land. It’s very good to see Israel taking responsible steps now to address this, finally.”

People cool off in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

People cool off in the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israel’s plan provides for piping in 120 million cubic meters annually. Steinitz hopes to see that almost tripled in a cabinet vote next month. Such capacity, he said, would replenish the Galilee by 2026.

He predicted a small bump to consumers’ water tariffs, to help defray the $622 million infrastructure cost.

Still, with a national election due in 2019 and an unusually wet winter looming, some worry the Galilee could be again neglected.

“The vulnerability of this program is that the Water Authority has to continue to commit to maximizing desalination production,” said Gidon Bromberg, Israel director for the environmental group EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East. “And that is a commitment that could change every year.”

The authority’s director, Giora Shaham, sounded reassuring.

“We need this water, not only for us but also for the Jordanians, because they are in very, very tough conditions now from the water problem point of view,” he said.

(The story restores missing word in 10th paragraph.)

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Jeffrey Heller, Larry King)

World War One shells found in drought-hit Sea of Galilee

An Israeli police handout photograph shows what a police spokesperson says are World War One artillery shells discovered in the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, Israel, made avaliable by Israeli police

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Receding waters in the drought-hit Sea of Galilee have uncovered five World War One artillery shells likely dumped by retreating Turkish troops a century ago, Israeli police said on Tuesday.

A swimmer at a resort on the southern edge of the biblical freshwater lake discovered the ordnance, and police demolition experts safely detonated the shells on Monday.

“It emerged that these were artillery shells from the World War One period which were apparently abandoned by the Turks when they lightened their load as they fled from the British army,” police spokesman Luba Samri said.

Turkish forces, which controlled Palestine as part of the Ottoman Empire, were defeated in battles in the Galilee in 1918. After World War One, Britain ruled Palestine under a mandate that expired in 1948, the year Israel declared independence.

Israel’s Water Authority says there has been a sharp reduction in annual rainfall in the Galilee region over the past two years.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Major Oil Find in Israel but Quality and Cost of Extraction Unknown

Israel is surrounded by countries loaded with oil bearing land. To find a sufficient amount of oil could mean a huge boost for her young oil production industry.

A company drilling for oil on the Golan Heights, close to the country’s border with Syria , claims they have found a significant amount of oil reserves. What they found looks to be 10 times larger than the average oil field worldwide.  This could  boost support of domestic demand but the quality, quantity and the cost involved for extraction is not known at this time.

Three drilling sites on the Golan have uncovered what is potentially billions of barrels of oil, enough to fulfill the Israeli market’s 270,000-barrel-per-day consumption for a very long time.

Chief geologist of Afek Oil and Gas, Yuval Bartov, said, “It’s a fantastic feeling. We came here thinking maybe yes or maybe no and now things are really happening!”

Since Israel’s founding, companies have drilled 530 exploratory wells in search for oil, but few of them have turned up commercially viable product, the Times of Israel reported. 

This find, however is already shadowed by the concerns regarding the war in Syria and the cost involved to protect the oil fields, domestic concerns as to the legality of Israel’s right to Golan Heights, as well as an ongoing struggle with environmental groups concerned over the effects the drilling will have on the land and the wildlife found there.  

The main site is close to the small town of Katzrin, which lies northeast of the northern shore of the fabled Sea of Galilee and is home to a wide range of special plants and wild animals, including major nature reserves such as Gamla, home to Israel’s largest population of Griffon vultures.