Big Tel Aviv looks to little Rishon for lesson in water conservation

7 companies compete to build a groundbreaking desalination plant which will make saline water from 4 new wells drinkable.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
desalination plant 248.88 (photo credit: )
desalination plant 248.88
(photo credit: )
Seven companies are competing to build a groundbreaking desalination plant in Rishon Lezion, which will make saline water from four new wells drinkable and ultimately enable the city to become Israel's first fully independent water economy. In conjunction with the terms of the tender offer, the names of the companies vying for the building rights are currently being withheld by Meniv Rishon, Rishon Lezion's municipal water company. The finalists will be announced on October 26 and the winner a few weeks later. If all goes according to plan, the plant will be operational by the start of 2010. A Meniv Rishon official did reveal to The Jerusalem Post the name of one of the contesting companies: The Tel Aviv-Yafo Economic Development Authority Ltd., one of 32 Tel Aviv Municipality-owned companies. The Tel Aviv firm is not seeking to win the contract, however. "The company paid for the rights to study the tender," according to the official, "in order to learn more about how Rishon is doing what it is doing. I can tell you their name because that is the only reason they wanted the tender." The construction of the plant itself, at NIS 80 million, doesn't come cheap, but Daniel Low, general manager of Meniv Rishon, maintains that residents will be better off in the long run. "The cost of water in Rishon will go down. That's one of the principal targets in the long-run: to make water cheaper for people." An article about Rishon Lezion's hopes to become virtually self-sufficient water-wise in the next four to five years appears in the Post's Friday Metro local supplement, distributed in Gush Dan and beyond.