Israeli Residents Endure Water Crisis Despite Desalination Plant Resumption

Residents of the central Israeli moshav (cooperative agricultural community) of Netayim are still without running water for the fourth consecutive day, despite some desalination plants resuming operations and government assurances that the crisis is largely over. The situation has left residents struggling with basic hygiene, with the moshav's head, Mira Ben Ari, expressing frustration, stating, "I want water, there is no water in the State of Israel. Israel 2026 and there is no water for babies and to brush teeth." She criticized the company Mekorot, responsible for water infrastructure, for claiming to be addressing the issue without visible results.

Ben Ari's remarks came after Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen declared on Wednesday that "most of the desalination plant outage is behind us," a statement that surprised Netayim's residents. Mekorot personnel arrived at the moshav to fix the fault causing the prolonged outage. Ben Ari lamented the situation, comparing it to conditions in the 1950s and calling for an immediate, exceptional solution from the ministry.

Dani Nudelman, responsible for water management in the moshav, shared his disbelief, recounting how he collected desalinated water from a central point the previous day. He noted Mekorot's promise of water returning within "10 minutes" that morning, a promise yet to be fulfilled. The widespread outage stems from the shutdown of five out of six Mediterranean desalination plants, the cause of which is still under investigation.

While some plants have restarted, many homes remain dry. Hazi Lifshitz, chairman of the Water Authority, described the event as unprecedented but highlighted that, despite the outage, no homes or industrial facilities are currently suffering from a water shortage due to the operation of over 1,000 boreholes and the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). However, the shutdown did halt water supply to farmers in the Negev and led to a directive against watering public gardens. In normal summer conditions, daily water consumption is around 3.9 million cubic meters, with the desalination plant outage causing a potential deficit of approximately 85,000 cubic meters per hour, leading to a daily cut of about 300,000 cubic meters for agriculture.