Daily Briefing Sept. 7 – Desalination plant shutdowns break dam on water security risks

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Environmental reporter Sue Surkes joins host Gabriella Jacobs for today’s episode.

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We open by diving into the unprecedented shutdown of five of Israel’s six desalination plants last week. Surkes reports that the closures have exposed a growing strategic vulnerability: the country’s near-total dependence on large coastal facilities for drinking water.

Surkes explains that the plants, all along the southern Mediterranean coast, were forced offline by microalgae swept north by waves from the Nile Delta. While the majority of the plants are back online, reduced output continues as of publication.

We pivot to focus on the pollution clogging up the Hebron Stream. She explains how raw sewage, construction byproducts, and illegal dumping are contaminating the waterway and threatening one of the region’s important natural water sources. She also speaks about why efforts to address the issue have stalled thus far.

We close the episode with a brief survey of Israeli-led sustainable food science initiatives that have progressed over the summer, including Weizmann scientists on the path to creating food from air and Hebrew University researchers extracting milk proteins from safflower plants.

Check out The Times of Israel’s ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Almost all of Israel’s desalination plants shut due to weather; source denies cyberattack

Desalination plants again shut down due to murky seawater; farmers sound the alarm

New masterplan needed after desalination shutdown underlines dangers of tech overreliance

Officials seek to calm public after algicides dumped at sea in bid to reopen desalination plants

As toxic sewage and factory sludge choke Hebron stream, locals refuse to go with the flow

‘It’s like magic’: In world first, Weizmann scientists on path to create food from air

Milk from seeds: Israeli scientists produce key dairy protein from safflower plant

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