Israel is in the midst of an extremely serious water crisis. Repeated drought conditions for the last decade combined with over-consumption per capita and an ever growing population have caused Israel's water situation to be on the brink of emergency – less than a year away from national water-rationing.
The Sea of Galilee and Israel's coastal and mountain aquifers, Israel's main sources of fresh water, have dropped to an alarmingly low level, and acquiring alternative sources of fresh water have become absolutely vital and urgent.
Israel is facing an annual water shortage of 350 million cubic meters, perhaps best visualized by imagining 350,000 football stadiums completely filled with water.
Some assessments have claimed that within 10 years or less, Israel could be left without any water to grow crops, unless a solution is found.
The need for widespread Water Conservation has become imperative for Israel's survival – and widespread conservation can only be accomplished through widespread education.
Located next to the water reclamation project where the sewage water of Nitzana is turned into fresh, sweet, pure water, students learn about the potential consequences of the water crisis, reasons why it has happened, solutions that are being utilized to ease the crisis, such as desalination and reverse osmosis and reclamation. The most important way that they can contribute to the solution is to conserve water themselves. Water games are played that incorporate daily habits of water usage in order to find out which habits are most wasteful or efficient.
Did you know that the average person uses 200 liters* (app.53 gallons) of water per day in household use?! (Rich people tend to use more). A large portion of this is used for flushing the toilet.
*This does not include industry or agricultural use.
Tip of the day: In public you must flush every time, but in the privacy of your home – try to flush less and always use the water saving handle when possible.
(If you don't have a water saver device on your toilet, it costs around $50.00 and can save approximately 3,000 gallons of water per year for an average household that has two bathrooms).
