Water Authority Council director general Prof. Uri Shani says water rates will probably rise by 10% during 2008 because of the operation of seawater desalination plants that charge $0.60 per cubic meter and because of the launch of operations by water and sewage corporations.
Shani said that the real price of water had risen in recent years by 40%, but that the Ministry of Finance was the agency that was calling for the rate hike. He added that Israel was suffering from a severe water shortage caused by rising consumption and the many recent droughts.
Shani said that models showed a once in a decade extreme drought that was liable to harm agriculture. He added that climatic changes and global warming were liable to worsen the problem of droughts.
Worries about water shortages prompted the government to increase Israel's production of desalinated seawater from 230 million cubic meters a year to 505 million cubic meters by 2013, and to simultaneously improve conservation efforts. Studies by the Technion Israel Institute of Technology recommend reducing per capita water consumption to 115 cubic meters a year through conservation education.
The study said that conservation education is far more effective than raising the price of water, which harms the poor but does not result in savings of water. The study also recommends setting a high price for exceeding the average consumption level in parallel with an effort to improve savings.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 21, 2007
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