For the semi-arid country of Israel, the availability of fresh water has long been an issue. However, with the opening of the country’s third desalination plant, a greater abundance of fresh water may soon be available.

This desalination plant, operating in the northern city of Hadera, is being celebrated as the largest reverse osmosis facility of its kind in the world. The plant was built by Israeli company IDE Technologies, and joins two other desalination plants on the country’s Mediterranean coastline.

The Hadera plant was built with assistance from the Housing and Construction Group, a real estate development company owned by the Arison Group. It costs around half a billion dollars, and is slated to produce approximately 127 million cubic meters of water a year – an amount seen to meet the needs of one in every six Israelis. And lest anyone think that IDE lacks experience in making water desalination facilities that work, the company has already built around 400 such plants in 40 countries to date, with processes and mechanisms that are proprietary and can truly be considered revolutionary.

The methods used by IDE for desalination involve the removal of salt from seawater using Reverse Osmosis (RO). This is one of the two main ways to desalinate water, the other being electrodialysis. In the case of RO, a water-permeable membrane separates the water from salt and other mineral compounds when placed under high pressure.

The Israeli government is also playing a big part in this push for a more stable water supply. The Hadera plant will join similar structures in Ashkelon and Palmahim in producing water priced at a little over 50 cents per cubic meter, according to a 25-year deal.

While different environmental groups vary on their stands on water desalination, the fact of the matter is that it offers cheap and clean drinking water for millions of Israelis, with a lower ecological impact than that inflicted by over-draining rivers and lakes. From the perspective of improving people’s quality of life, this is a completely winning situation.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israel.