The contract, signed with the company Sorek Desalination Ltd, will serve to substantially increase the availability of water resources in a water-scarce region through the construction of a plant with a production capacity of 150 million cubic metres per year.

A press release said the expansion of desalination technology would have a direct impact on people’s daily lives: the blending of desalinated water with fresh drinking water from the national water carrier system will improve the quality of water delivered to consumers by reducing hardness and concentrations of salts, nitrates and boron. It will ultimately result in markedly reduced water abstraction and thus the prevention of saline water intrusion into aquifers.

The financing of this project forms part of the EIB’s support for improving wastewater treatment facilities and drinking water supply in the regions. In Israel, in 2007 and 2009 the Bank supported the construction and extension of the Hadera desalination plant with loans totalling €130 million. In the Mediterranean region as a whole, it has devoted more than €1.05 billion to the water sector. FEMIP, the Bank’s financial arm in the Mediterranean, is also working to reduce pollution in the Mediterranean Sea under the Horizon 2020 initiative, in line with one of the six priorities of the Union for the Mediterranean.