There was a time, not so long ago, when worried Israelis would listen out for daily updates on the water level of the Sea of Galilee (or the Kinneret, as it is known in Hebrew).
It’s the country’s only significant freshwater lake and was, until recently, its primary source of water.
So it was a national concern if the level dropped, as it often did during the summer months, day-by-day, centimeter-by-centimeter.
The upper red line (danger), was bad news. The lower red line (pumping from the lake prohibited) was worse, and the black line (risk of permanent damage) was terrible.
Today the water level of the Kinneret is longer such a problem. Israel has been desalinating water from the Mediterranean since 2005.
And in recent months, it completed a $250 million infrastructure project that allows it to top it up the lake with water from its five desalination plants in the south of the country.
A newly-built network of underground pipelines, pumping stations, and local reservoirs means Mekorot, the national water company, and the Israel Water Authority can now turn on the tap as and when needed, and water will immediately start flowing into the Kinneret.
For the final 3km of its journey the water emerges from underground pipes at Nahal Zalmon, reviving an otherwise dried-out riverbed.
Since 1964, water from the Kinneret, in the north, was piped south, to supply the whole of the country. Now Israel is reversing that flow.
Incidentally, the Sea of Galilee, as it’s known in English, is actually a lake – the largest in Israel and the lowest freshwater lake below sea level in the world at 215 meters (705 ft).
Nowadays the lake functions primarily as an emergency water source, and to provide Israel’s neighbor Jordan with desperately-needed water, as part of a 1994 peace treaty.
The Kinneret is a popular tourist attraction, also for Christian pilgrims. It is, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the place where Jesus walked on water.
The project to fill it up with desalinated sea water is the first of its kind in the Middle East, and possibly anywhere in the world.
“Instead of taking the water from north to south, we’re taking it from south to north and reversing the flow back to the Sea of Galilee,” says Lior Gutman, press officer for Mekorot.
“It’s very rare project. I don’t know about what’s going on worldwide. But for the Middle East, it’s the first of its kind. I can tell you that for certain.”
Source: Nocamels