Sources inform ''Globes'' that, after a year-long dispute, Mekorot National Water Company, for the first time, signaled that it will accept the price for water demanded by the Ministry of Finance as a condition for its approval for the company to build the Ashdod desalination plant.
Mekorot's agreement is conditional on the cabinet agreeing to expand the plant's output by 20% to 120 million cubic meters a year. Mekorot's consent will be a problem for the Ministry of Finance, which wants to cancel the company's franchise to build the plant no matter what.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday prevented the Ministry of Finance from submitting such a proposal to the cabinet. Mekorot chairman Alex Wiznitzky said that he welcomed Netanyahu's intervention in the water crisis, adding that he hopes that an arrangement will be reached in a few days to begin construction of the Ashdod desalination plant.
Mekorot said today that if the company gets the green light, the Ashdod desalination plant can come online in 2013.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 31, 2011
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