ISRAEL: Concern about low rainfall and over use of waters reducing the Sea of Galilee

Record ID: 397774

  • Title: ISRAEL: Concern about low rainfall and over use of waters reducing the Sea of Galilee
  • Date: 7th August 2001
  • Summary: GALILEE, CENTRAL ISRAEL (AUGUST 8, 2001) (REUTERS) WIDE /SLV OF SEA OF GALILEE SEEN FROM HILLSIDE SHOWING RECEDING WATER LINE (2 SHOTS) SLV SWIMMERS WALKING ALONG BED OF LAKE TO REACH WATER SMV OF PEOPLE SWIMMING IN LAKE SLV TOURIST AND CHILD WALKING IN WATER WIDE/ SLV OF RECEDING WATER LINE WITH PEOPLE SUN-BATHING (2 SHOTS) WIDE OF BOAT PULLING FLOAT WITH PEOPLE RIDING O
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GALILEE, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA1FOB5VPOXSKVKUDPSB8HZDMFG
  • Story Text: Successive years of low rainfall and increasing
    reliance on the Sea of Galilee's waters has made walking on
    the lakes waters easy for anyone.



    2,000 years after Jesus, walking on water at the Sea of
    Galilee is easy. Only a little more difficult than taking a
    swim.

    A severe drought has shrunk the fresh water lake and
    exposed sandbanks where it is possible to walk at the same
    level as the water surface.

    Most people though, still prefer to swim in the lake. It
    provides welcome relief to the super-hot summer air, which
    often reaches above 40 degrees centrigrade in summer due in
    part to the low level of the surrounding land -- more than 200
    metres (yards) below sea level.

    But these days the people living on the lakes shores are
    praying for a miracle that seems almost as unlikely as Jesus'
    feat 2000 years ago -- rain.

    The water level is so low that the fishing harbour, built
    to survive the lowest known water levels, is almost unusable.

    Trawlers must moor outside the harbour, transferring fish
    on flat-bottomed barges to the the harbour wharf.

    "This is the worst lake -- Sea of Galilee -- that I've
    seen in my life," said veteran fisherman Menachem Lev from
    Kibbutz Ein Gev, a collective farm on the lakes eastern shore.

    "Every morning, when I come to work, I feel very sad."
    The lake, whose size so impressed the ancient world that
    it earned the title of sea, has shrunk annually for the past
    four years, exposing chunks of lakebed. Swimmers must hike up
    to 100 metres (yards) from the beach to reach the waters edge.

    For Lev, it may mean giving up fishing until the onset of
    the winter rains in December as the protected port where he
    unloads his catch is likely to dry up within weeks.

    The water level is already so low that hauling crates of
    fish from his boat bobbing on the water far below the dock is
    back-breaking work in the sweltering Galilee summer.

    So severe is the crisis, that the state Water
    Commissioner last week lowered the red-line indicating the Sea
    of Galilee's lowest water level to 215.50 metres (yards) below
    sea level. It is currently 214.04 and is expected to drop even
    further.

    Kibbutz Ein Gevs old-timers shake their heads in amazement
    as they look at the dried up beaches around the kibbutz.

    They recall a time when the lake was so full that its
    waters lapped into Ein Gevs seaside fish restaurant.

    This harbour in a few more months is going to be dry,
    explained Lev, sweat pouring down his face as he swiftly hauls
    plastic crates loaded with fish and fast-melting ice to the
    dock before his catch starts rotting in the scorching heat.

    The burning Galilee sun evaporates one centimetre of water
    from the Sea of Galilee every day during summer, meaning that
    by December the lake will have dropped by at least another
    metre.

    Kibbutz Ein Gev tour guide Yoel Ben-Yossef showers
    standing in a plastic tub to collect used water, one of a few
    tricks the 52-year-old kibbutz member uses to recycle water.

    The dried up lawns and flower-beds of the kibbutz have
    been left to die as the collective farms precious water
    allocation is used to irrigate Kibbutz Ein Gevs banana
    plantations.

    The Water Commissioner has cut pumping water from the Sea
    of Galilee from 1.5 million cubic metres to 700,000 cubic
    metres per annum. But its still not enough to save the Sea of
    Galilee's water supply which is becoming more salient as the
    water level drops.

    Israel is starting to introduce a series of water
    conservation laws such as a ban on watering lawns during the
    day and washing cars with hose-pipes, but water experts are
    concerned the measures are little more than a drop in the
    ocean.

    As the country pins its hopes on importing massive amounts
    of water from Mediterranean neighbour Turkey and constructing
    expensive water desalination plants, the fishermen of the
    Galilee can do only one thing -- they pray to God for rain.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register