IDE Technologies, a global water desalination company based in Israel, announced it was awarded the bid to finance, design, and construct Israel’s seventh desalination plant in the Western Galilee region.
The plant will be the first to be constructed in the northern part of Israel. Once in operation, it will produce 100 million cubic meters of desalinated water annually (roughly 72 million gallons daily), improving the reliability of Israel’s water supply to nearby regions.
The Western Galilee desalination plant, to be named Birkat Miriam, will join Israel’s other large scale desalination plants in operation — Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim, Hadera and Sorek 1 — while IDE also constructs Sorek 2.
These desalination plants are part of a government effort to increase the amount of desalinated water in the country’s overall water resources. The water contribution from the Western Galilee plant will bring total production of desalination plants in Israel to almost 900 million cubic meters per year (roughly 651 million gallons daily). This water represents 85-90 percent of household and industrial water consumption.
This new project marks the second time in two years that IDE secured a bid to construct a desalination plant in Israel. In 2020, IDE was awarded the contract to construct Sorek 2, named Be'er Miriam, one of the largest seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants in the world.
“As an Israel-based leader in water desalination technology, we are immensely proud to secure and support another large scale desalination plant in our home country and increase the valuable water supply to the residents and businesses of the northern parts of Israel,” says Alon Tavor, CEO of IDE Technologies Group. “Desalination is critical to preserving water as a natural resource and IDE is committed to expanding our technology reach – and it starts at home.”
IDE will construct the plant as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the State of Israel, represented by the Ministries of Finance and Energy and the Israel Water Authority, and will be responsible for planning and financing the approximately 1.5 billion Israeli shekel ($430 million USD) project. With a goal of completion in 2025, IDE will also operate the plant for 25 years beyond the project term.
