Mekorot National Water Company of Israel is laying a pipe to connect the desalination plant in Ashdod, with plants in Soreq and Palmachim, reports Globes.
The 10 kilometre long, 2.5 meter diameter section of pipeline will have the capacity to carry 30,000 m3/hour of water, and runs alongside a gas pipeline on the west coast.
The NIS 230 million ($60million) project is one piece of a much bigger, NIS 3 billion ($780 million) scheme to build a nationwide water system, to which all 34 of Israel’s desalination brackish and seawater desalination plants will be connected.
Water from Soreq and Palmachim “could be directed to the south, towards the Hafetz Haim reservoir and Jerusalem, or to the north during the winter,” Mekorot project manager, Ronit Alkalay, told Globes.
Mekorot National Water Company is owned by the Israeli government and supplies 80 per cent of Israel’s drinking water and 70 per cent of the country’s overall water needs, amounting to 1,500 billion m3/y.