Campaign to distribute 2 million water aerators launched

Spokesman says 25 million cubic meters of water should be saved each year.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
Water 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Water 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
A long-awaited Water Authority campaign to distribute 2 million water aerators was launched on Sunday.
A water aerator reduces the flow of water coming through the faucet while maintaining as much water pressure as possible.
Water Authority Spokesman Uri Schor told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the campaign was expected to conserve 25 million cubic meters of water annually. That’s equivalent to a quarter of a large desalination plant.
“This was one of the hardest and most complex tenders in history because it will entail distribution and installation,” Schor said, to explain why it took a year between the formal announcement of the plan and its launch.
Schor said that the country had been divided into four districts, with a different consortium winning the tender for each district.
The companies will distribute the water aerators over the next three months. Three aerators, two for faucets and one for shower heads, will be distributed and installed absolutely free of charge, Schor stressed. If more aerators are needed, Schor said they can be purchased at home supply stores like Home Depot or Ace and hardware stores.
He warned that only aerators with a symbol denoting the blue standard should be purchased. The blue standard indicates that the product has been examined by the Water Authority and the Standards Institution of Israel.
“The aerators conserve a third of the water that goes through them without a noticeable difference in the stream. The devices mix in air bubbles, so it feels like a full stream,” Schor said.
The Water Authority hopes to get a better sense of how deeply water aerators have penetrated the home market via the campaign.
“How many are already installed? It’s not clear. All new faucets built to the Israeli standard have water aerators built in and we don’t know how many people have already installed aerators of their own accord. We’ll find out in the course of the project and then continue accordingly,” he told the Post.
The cost of the initiative comes to NIS 30 million.
Schor said it would cost twice that to desalinate the same 25 million cubic meters of water.