Drought threatens Israel's water supply

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel faces a shortage of drinking water over the next year amid the worst drought in 40 years.

Officials envisioned that the shortage will become so acute that major cities would be struck by frequent outages and that such services as water gardens will be banned. They said the drought has led to a drop in the Sea of Galilee, Israel's only fresh-water lake.

The level is expected to drop to a level of 214 meters below sea level, past the so-called red line set by authorities. This could lead to rapidly increase the saline level of the lake.

At the same time, the drought is also expected to damage Israel's ground water reserves. Officials said this will prompt a shortage of drinking water in Israel by 2001.

The assessments were made at a meeting of the Water Commission this week. "I have never attended such a gloomy and pessimistic meeting," a participant told the Israeli Haaretz daily on Wednesday.

Officials said the water crisis is so pressing that such solutions as desalination will not ease the current shortage. They said desalination will not make up for the shortage of at least 120 million cubic meters of water this year.

Instead, they agreed that only a severe cut in allocations to farmers will ensure enough water for drinking. But they said farmers have already planted their fields and will not be affected by further cuts this year.