Israel also plans to ask the United Nations itself to halt work on the pumping station, which began last month. It is not yet in operation. This is because the plan, which presently calls for pumping only enough water to supply the needs of a few local villages, will have no noticeable impact on Israel's water supply in the short term. More extensive use of the river by Lebanon, however, could dry up one of the main sources of Israel's principal reservoir - Lake Kinneret. As Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said yesterday, there is concern Lebanon could eventually build a dam to divert the entire river.
Lebanese officials deny any such intention.
Dror said with water scarcer than ever after a second year of low rainfall, Israel could not sit quietly by and allow Lebanon to divert the Hatsbani. Each year 110 million cubic meters of water flow into the Jordan River from the Hatsbani, about 24 percent of the Jordan's total intake. Most of the water destined for the Jordan passes through the Kinneret on the way, accounting for two-thirds of the water entering the Kinneret every year. About 60 million cubic meters a year is removed from these wellsprings at source by either Israel or other countries - an amount that has increased significantly in recent years due to increased pumping by Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights. If Lebanon were to begin pumping large quantities from the Hatsbani, the Kinneret would soon be in even worse shape than it is now.