Israel To Build Second Water Desalination Plant

(February 24, 2005)

An agreement was signed at the Water Commissioners' Office in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2005, for the establishment of a second seawater desalination plant. The accord was signed by National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer in the presence of Water Commissioner Shimon Tal and senior Finance Ministry officials.

A private company, Derech Hayam, will build the $85 million plant in the Palmahim area, which will produce 30 million cubic meters of purified water a year. The project is due to become fully operational in 2007. This follows a plant that has been built at Ashkelon, which will start to produce some 50 million cu.m. of pure water this summer and reach full capacity of 100 million cu.m. by the end of 2005.