Importance of Seawater Desalination and Wastewater Reuse in Israel

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Episode recorded July 5, 2023
Episode released on September 7, 2023

Noam Weisbrod is the Dean of the Desert Research Institute at Ben Gurion University. He will discuss the development of climate resilient water sources in Israel, including desalinated seawater and wastewater. 

Highlights  |  Transcript

• Israel is a small country (~20,000 km²) with a population of ~ 9.8 million people and about half of the country characterized as semiarid. Water is a critical issue. 
• The Desert Research Institutes is part of Ben Gurion University, including the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research and a large international graduate program in English. 
• Seawater desalination now provides ~ 80% of potable water in Israel from five major desalination plants. The five active plants provide ~ 600 million cubic meters/yr (mcm/yr). Prior to 2004 most water was supplied by the Sea of Galilee (capacity: ~ 4 km³), the Coastal Aquifer, and the Mountain Aquifer.  Two additional desalination plants are being developed. 
• Sidney Loeb played a major role in developing reverse osmosis for seawater desalination at Univ. California Los Angeles and was a faculty at Ben Gurion University. 
• The Israeli government guarantees the price of desalinated water for the first 25 years, facilitating development of desalination with industry. 
• Desalinated water is delivered to the nearby National Water Carrier, minimizing transport costs. 
• The cost of desalinated seawater in Israel is ~65 cents/1000 m³. 
• Desalination involves pretreatment (granular filtration/micron filtration), reverse osmosis, and posttreatment (filter with limestone).
• Desalination is energy intensive. The original energy source was coal but now it is mostly natural gas from offshore sources. Desal accounts for ~ 5% of Israel’s annual energy use. Cooling water for power plants is provided by seawater. 
• The concentrate generated from desalination is mixed with cooling water from power plants; therefore, the salinity is only slightly greater than seawater and many plants dispose of this concentrate in long diffuse offshore pipes. 
• Wastewater reuse/recycling is very advanced in Israel, with about 90% of wastewater subjected to tertiary treatment and reused for irrigated agriculture. The Shafdan plant (134 mcm/yr Tel Aviv) is an example of the largest plant. Most homes of separate system for wastewater (purple pipes). 
• Managed aquifer recharge is used to store excess desalinated seawater or treated wastewater in depleted aquifers (Coastal aquifer). 
• Development of seawater desalination and wastewater reuse results in a climate resilient water supply system in Israel. 
• The National Water Carrier was completed in 1965 and transports water from the Sea of Galilee in the north throughout Israel. 
• Israel and Jordan have agreed to a water for energy deal brokered by UAE whereby Jordan would develop 600 megawatts of solar power capacity to deliver to Israel and in return Israel would provide 200 (mcm) of water to Jordan.