Desalination wins over imports

Two measures under consideration are the import of tankers of water from Turkey,

and desalination. Whereas the import of water from Turkey, at a quantity of

50 million metres³/year, is currently under negotiation, pending bilateral

trade agreements, the government has approved a large scale desalination policy,

with the aim to desalinate seawater and saline water at a quantity estimated

at 400 million metres³/year. Israeli and international companies responded

to tenders issued by the government and by Mekorot, Israel’s national water

company. The Israel Desalination Society (IDS) forecasts that a total of 400

million metres³ of water will be treated each year at a cost of $1.2BN,

and Water Commissioner Shimon Tal, estimates that $3.7BN is needed to develop

Israel’s water resources in the next 10 years.

In April 2001, Israel’s IDE Technologies began operating its plant in Larnaca,

Cyprus. IDE Chief Executive David Waxman was quoted in an article in The

New York Times saying that ‘Israel could use 10 such plants.’ Over the past

30 years, IDE has built nearly 300 desalination facilities worldwide, and is

a major contender in the current desalination race in Israel, applying new energy-efficient

filtration systems.

Instead of heating and distilling the brine, the new filtration system strains

salt out of sea water using synthetic membranes in a process consuming half

as much power, compared with other desalination methods. Israeli water experts

say that world demand for these improved reverse osmosis systems, used also

for purifying brackish, saline and polluted water, is now growing at 10 times

the pace of thermal desalination.

Planned Israeli desalination facilities and other alternative sources are:

The Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Hadera Plants; coastal medium-small-size plants those

on the Negev-Arava Plateau.

IDE Technologies, Vivendi and Dankner-Ellern won the government’s tender to

build the Ashkelon desalination plant. Forming the VID Desalination company

(IDE with 50% of the shares, Vivendi – 25%, and Dankner-Ellern – 25%), this

consortium, the first to win a bid in Israel, set a precedent in the global

desalination business by quoting the lowest price ever of $0.52 for one metre3

of desalinated sea water. The facility, to be built at an investment estimated

at between $150M and $250M, is now scheduled to desalinate 100 million metres³/year,

double the volume specified in the initial tender.

The decision to add a second facility, came after Finance Minister Sylvan Shalom

exercised the State’s option it reserved in the original tender, thus making

it the country’s largest desalination facility, due to begin supplying water

by the end of 2003. VID Desalination surprised the water trade by quoting even

a lower price for desalinated sea water to be supplied by the second Ashkelon

facility – $0.47 per metre³.

Sources at the Water Commission commented that ‘VID’s move to lower prices

indicates the group’s plans to dominate the local desalination market in its

early stages.’

Ashdod Desalination, comprising the Baran Engineering and Projects; Ionics

of the US, and the Via Maris group – a consortium of the Israeli companies Tahal,

Oceana, Tambour Ecology, Gaon-Agro and the Spanish company Tadagoa, submitted

the bid to Mekorot to desalinate 45 million metres³/year at an investment

estimated at $130M. Scheduled to start supplying water at the end of 2003, the

Ashdod plant is a turnkey project.

The Hadera Plant is planned as a BOT, to be constructed near the country’s

major electric power station on the Mediterranean coast, to produce 50 million

metres³/year. The Ministry of National Infrastructures is now acting to

change the terms of this tender to increase its production to 100 million metres³/year.

Six local and international companies responded to the government’s tenders

to build small and medium size desalination plants on the sea coast. These plants,

all to be financed by private sources, are scheduled to produce some 65 million

metres³/year under the BOO method. A seventh player – the Rothschild Foundation,

through its development arm the Caesarea Development Company, announced last

year its intention to built a desalination plant to produce 250 million metres³/year

at a total investment of $500M, with the desalinated water sold to the government

for a period of at least 20 years.

The desalination projects in the Negev and Arava, the country’s arid areas

are planned to desalinate the region’s underground saline reservoirs. The tenders

specify desalinating 35-50 million metres³/year under the BOT method, for

an estimated $100M. The Negev/Arava projects will also cancel the need to transport

water, at high cost, from the country’s central and northern parts.