The government, financiers and companies working on the Ashdod desalination plant will sign a series of funding agreements on Tuesday – signaling the beginning of the plant's construction, the National Infrastructure Ministry announced on Monday. The Ashdod facility, which is expected to start operating in 2013, will have a capacity of 100 million cubic meters per year. The ministry criticized the signing as "two years too late," as a result of bureaucratic complications.
"Israel today is in the midst of a revolution in the water field, led by the National Infrastructure Ministry, together with the Water Authority and Mekorot," National Infrastructure Minister Dr. Uzi Landau said in a statement. "Today we already benefit from 300 million cubic meters of desalinated water; in the year 2014 – 600 million cubic meters; and in the year 2020 – 750 million cubic meters."
