National Water Carrier

The National Water Carrier of Israel (Hebrew: המוביל הארצי‎, HaMovil HaArtzi) is the largest water project in Israel. Its main task is to transfer water from the Sea of Galilee in the north of the country to the highly populated center and arid south and to enable efficient use of water and regulation of the water supply in the country. Up to 72,000 cubic meters (19,000,000 U.S. gal; 16,000,000 imp gal) of water can flow through the carrier each hour, totalling 1.7 million cubic meters in a day.

Most of the water works in Israel are combined with the National Water Carrier, the length of which is about 130 kilometers (81 mi). The carrier consists of a system of giant pipes, open canals, tunnels, reservoirs and large scale pumping stations. Building the carrier was a considerable technical challenge as it traverses a wide variety of terrains and elevations.

Early plans were made before the establishment of the state of Israel but detailed planning started only after nascent Israel's formation in 1948. The construction of the project, originally known as the Jordan Valley Unified Water Plan, started in 1953, during the planning phase, long before the detailed final plan was completed in 1956. The project was designed by Tahal and constructed by Mekorot. It was started during the tenure of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, but was completed in June 1964 under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, at a cost of about 420 million Israeli lira (at 1964 values). The National Water Carrier was inaugurated in 1964, with 80% of its water being allocated to agriculture and 20% for drinking water. As time passed however, increasing amounts were consumed as drinking water, and by the early 1990s, the National Carrier was supplying half of the drinking water in Israel. It was forecast that by the year 2010 80% of the National Carrier will be directed more at providing drinking water. The reasons for the increased demand for drinking water was twofold. Firstly, Israel saw rapid population growth, primarily in the center of the country which increased demands for water. Furthermore, as the standard of living in the country rose, there was increased domestic water use. As a result of the 1994 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, among other items, Israel agreed to transfer 50 million cubic metres of water annually to Jordan.

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