The government plans to institute a new rate schedule for water users in Israel which is intended to conserve water by charging high rates for all but minimum quantities. The committee which recommended this plan to the government stressed that such a plan is most likely to be effective in Tel Aviv, where the per capita consumption of water is twice that in Haifa and Jerusalem.
Minister of Agriculture Kaddish Luz said today that “water supply is now Israel’s most serious problem. ” The drought is the worst in the memory of the oldest living inhabitants of Israel. The weather bureau recorded an average rainfall in Israel this past year of one-third of the normal annual fall. Hardest hit was the Negev, where only II percent of the normally small precipitation fell this year.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
