While the socio-economic cabinet did not go that far this week, it did raise the price of water substantially. In case there was a doubt of the seriousness of the water situation as summer approaches, Water Commissioner Shimon Tal has ordered that pumping from the Kinneret resume after three months of severe restrictions, despite the Kinneret's depleted state. The reason given was to minimize the damage caused by overpumping from the Mountain Aquifer, which has dropped below its red line. Today's water crisis is worse, and the comptroller's diagnosis is more right than ever. After all the talk of drastic measures to increase the water supply, the first measure of seriousness is to stop paying farmers to use huge amounts of water.
Agriculture is by far the major consumer of water in Israel.
More importantly, while most home users are not that sensitive to changes in the price of water, farmers will use much less water if they have to pay more for it. It also did not go far enough. Lieberman and the Finance Ministry pushed for bringing the price of agricultural water up to the level charged in the cities. Instead, the new price of water to farmers is still just over half of the old urban price, and less than a third of the new price for households. The massive subsidies for agriculture make no sense in a time of drought.