Mekorot National Water Company has completed its NIS 550 million central filtering facility for water from Lake Kinneret transported by the National Water Carrier. This is the world’s fourth largest filtering facility and the only one of its kind in Israel.
Kinneret lake water will enter mixing tanks, where substances will be added to improve the water. These substances will cause unwanted materials, such as plants, algae and contaminants to form clumps, which can then be removed from the water. The result will improve the water’s taste and lower the turbidity level to below the Ministry of Health threshold.
Mekorot built the filtering facility only after the Israel Union for Environmental Defense petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the state to finance the facility.
A report by Prof. Avner Adin of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, published in April 2007, found that it was necessary to build filtering facilities at all surface water sources in Israel, in order to further improve water quality.
ELPC built the facility and the engineering work was carried out by Solel Boneh Building and Infrastructure Ltd.. The facility can filter 750 cubic meters of water an hour, 1.7 million cubic meters a day and 450 million cubic meters a year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 16, 2007
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