The expansion of the Palmachim desalination plant in Israel was officially opened on 17 January 2012.
One of a number of expansions ordered by the Israeli government, the Palmachim plant will now have a capacity of 90 million m³/year, up from 45 million m³/year. Global Environmental Solutions owns the plant, which it took over in 2011 from the original Via Maris consortium, of which it was a member.
The Jerusalem Post quoted energy and water minister Dr Uzi Landau as saying, “Doubling the quantity of water is essential to the future, the economy and the security of Israel. The area in which we live is the wild Middle East, and therefore, we must provide our water by ourselves.”
Palmachim is only one of the three existing large Israeli plants to agree to expand at the water-purchase price of NIS 2.07/m³ (US$ 0.55/m³), the price agreed for the Sorek desalination plant, now under construction by IDE Technologies.