Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) rose another 11 cm on Wednesday night. The lake has risen 3.31 meters this winter, which means that 580 million cubic meters of water have entered the lake.
The Kinneret is still 2.21 meters short of the original (upper) red line, reflecting a shortfall of 386 million cubic meters of water, the annual production of four large desalination plants.
The Kinneret red line is a statutory mark below which water may not be pumped from the lake for the National Water Carrier pipeline. There are two red lines. The original or upper red line is 209 meters below sea level. The new or lower red line is 213 meters below sea level.
Water Commission measurements at the Houri Bridge (also known as Gesher HaPkak) monitoring station this morning show that the water was flowing at 100 cubic meters per second, indicating that the lake will rise by another five cm by this evening.
The measurements also demonstrated that the Kinneret rose even more this February than in February 1992, commonly known as “Big February,” when the water level rose 1.80 meters. The Kinneret gained 1.83 meters this February. The Water Commission hopes that rain this weekend will raise the water level still further. The added water in the lake has decreased its salinity by 15%.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on March 20, 2003