"Unless we save 60 million cubic meters of water a year, there's a chance that the supply of water to communities will be suspended," Water Authority director Prof. Uri Shani told the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee today, during a discussion on the water crisis and reform in water rates.
Seven MKs and representatives from dozens of organizations participated in the discussion. The Economics Committee focused on imposing a drought levy on private gardens. The levy would be imposed on an average family that uses large amounts of water, presumably because it waters the lawn. The committee wants to use the drought levy to reduce this private consumption of water.
"This is an unenforceable regulation that will not save water. We're talking about 2% of Israel's water consumption at most," said Gardening Association director general Hezi Mula.
There was no dispute during the discussion that the drought levy was the result of an ongoing policy failure in the water economy, which is now reflected in edictson the public. At the end of the meeting, Economics Committee chairman MK Ofir Akonis (Likud) said that there was also no disagreement over the need to levy a tax to reduce over-consumption of water, but the question that still remained open was the definition of over-consumption.
There were representatives from the haredim (ultra-orthodox Jews), who tend to have large families and therefore consume large quantities of water; the Council for a Beautiful Israel, who said that gardens were not a luxury; and from industry, who said that water was a critical input that could not be foregone. And so the meeting ended with no answer to the question.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 25, 2009
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