'Weekend storms prevented further cut to water for agriculture'

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
Water Authority head Prof. Uri Shani said Monday that the storms over the weekend saved the farmers from having to deal with another 100-million-cubic-meter cut to their water allocation. "We will allocate 350 million cubic meters to agriculture this year - 100 million less than last year. We thought about lowering it further to 250 million, but the weekend storm saved the farmers from this further cut," Shani said at a Technion international conference on climate change, environmental threats and drought. Meanwhile, Shani confirmed that this year parks would go brown because the authority would forbid watering gardens. "We will prohibit watering parks and gardens and there will be inspectors, but we believe there won't be a need for their fines because the public understands: If we don't stop watering, we simply won't have enough water."