Energy Ministry's Top Officials Largely Ignored Desalination Warnings
In early September 2026, a significant portion of Israel's desalination infrastructure collapsed due to a microscopic algae bloom in the Mediterranean Sea. This bloom caused turbidity that shut down five of the six major desalination plants along the coast, leaving only the Hadera facility operational. The crisis resulted in widespread water shortages for households, economic damage to farmers, and a temporary halt in water supply to the Gaza Strip, affecting nearly a million people according to UNICEF.
The incident, described as unprecedented by Water Authority Chairman Hezi Lifshitz, was foreshadowed in a November 2024 State Comptroller report. The report highlighted warnings from the Ministry of Health, dating back to January 2024, about climate change potentially increasing invasive species in the Mediterranean that release toxins. The Ministry had noted that desalination membranes might not effectively filter these toxins and was seeking funding for a survey to identify new algae species, their toxins, and develop lab methods for characterization. However, the Comptroller found that the Ministry of Health had not yet conducted the required survey.
Similarly, the Water Authority identified in a January 2024 draft internal document that water quality events were expected to increase in frequency, jeopardizing desalination continuity. The Comptroller determined the Authority had not completed its preparedness work or obtained approval from its council. Despite these warnings, an investigation by the transparency organization "Shakuf" into the official work logs of the Ministry of Energy's senior officials revealed a striking lack of focus on desalination.
Between January 2024 and March 2025, the word "desalination" appeared only once in the work log of Energy Minister Eli Cohen, in a meeting with the CEO of IDE, a desalination company, nine months before the Comptroller's report was published. No further entries related to desalination were found in his log after the report's release. The logs of the Ministry's Directors-General during 2024 showed general mentions of the State Comptroller's report but no specific references to algae, toxins, turbidity, or preparedness for desalination continuity. Searches for terms like "algae," "toxins," "invasive species," and "turbidity" yielded zero results in their logs.
While the required survey falls under the Ministry of Health's purview, the issue directly impacts the water sector, managed by the Ministry of Energy. The investigation suggests a documented gap between the critical importance of desalination, the explicit warnings in the Comptroller's report, and the attention given to the issue by senior energy officials. The work logs of former Energy Minister Israel Katz from 2023 also showed no mention of desalination, indicating a potential ongoing institutional oversight rather than an isolated incident. The Ministry of Energy responded that professional meetings on water sector issues are conducted regularly and asserted that the water supply to Israeli citizens and farmers is continuous.
