National Water Carrier (Israel)
Encyclopedia : N : NA : NAT : National Water Carrier (Israel)
The National Water Carrier of Israel (in Hebrew commonly called המוביל הארצי HaMovil Ha'Artzi) is the main water project of Israel.
The main task of the National Water Carrier is to transfer water of the rainy north of Israel to the center and arid south and to enable efficient use of water and regulation of water supply in the country. Most of the water works in Israel are combined with the National Water Carrier, the length of which is about 130 kilometers. Early plans were made before the establishment of the state of Israel but detailed planning started only after Israel's independence in 1948. The construction of the project started during the planning phase, long before the detailed final plan was completed and signed in 1956.
While started under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, the construction of the project was completed in 1964 under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. The National Water Carrier connects the Sea of Galilee with Israel's water system. The original goal of building the carrier was to provide irrigation water to the Negev region. Today 80% of the water drawn from the lake is utilized for Israel's domestic consumption.
The carrier consists of a system of aqueducts, 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. Since its construction, the resulting diversion of water from the Jordan River has been a source of tension with Syria and Jordan. In 1964, Syria began construction on the Headwater Diversion Plan that would have blocked the flow of water into the Sea of Galilee, sharply reducing the capacity of the carrier. This project and Israel's subsequent attack on the diversion facilities in 1965 precipitated the outbreak of the 1967 Six-Day War. Since then, Israel has occupied the Syrian Golan, from which water resources flow into the Sea of Galilee. In 1996, under the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, Israel agreed to supply Jordan with 50 million cubic metres of water annually. [link]
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.