The lake’s water level was measured at 213.19 meters below sea level.

Lake Kinneret’s (the Sea of Galilee) water level was measured at 213.19 meters below sea level on Wednesday, one of its lowest points in years. 

This is 19 centimeters below the lower red line and 4.39 meters below the lake’s maximum level. 

Such a low level in mid-October is not unusual; in nine of the past 25 years, the Kinneret’s level on this date was even lower.

The Water Authority has decided to channel water into Lake Kinneret for the first time due to its low depth. This “reverse carrier” project, scheduled for next month, will pump desalinated water into the Kinneret.

In the past, after several consecutive dry years, the lake dropped below the lower red line, leading to the establishment of a new minimum level known as the “black line.”

This line was set at 214.87 meters below sea level, marking the point at which water pumping from the lake would stop due to fears of causing irreversible ecological damage. At that level, water extraction from the Kinneret also becomes technically difficult. In 2001, the lake’s level came within 15 centimeters of that critical mark.

Period of dry years challenging for Kinneret

Between 2013 and 2018, the Kinneret experienced a period of significant challenges. That sequence of dry years raised red flags, prompting the Water Authority to develop a project to channel water into the lake. The project, carried out by the Mekorot water company, is called the “reverse carrier” and is designed to pump desalinated water into the Kinneret to maintain a stable water level in the lake.

The project was inaugurated in December 2022, but to date, it has not been necessary to use it to pump water back into the lake.

A few weeks ago, Fares Talhami, director of the Kinneret and Northern Water Sources Conservation Division at the Water Authority, told Walla that “indeed, in previous drought periods there were lower levels compared to this year, but what is exceptional this year is the intensity of the drought we experienced. We went through a winter with only 40% of the average rainfall in the North, so the Kinneret’s level rose last winter by just 15 centimeters.”

He added that “the winter of 2024–25 is the driest winter in the Kinneret’s drainage basin since measurements began about a hundred years ago.”

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https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-870841