Iran is reportedly experiencing a severe water shortage due to drought conditions (ie no rain) and soaring temperatures (temperatures have reached as high as 122F in some parts of the country this summer). The capital city Tehran is also running out of water. They are worried they are soon going to hit what they call "Day Zero" where they have no water left. They have been declaring national holidays as a way of keeping people from going to work so they can stay at home out of the heat and thereby also reduce the need for energy and water.

I stopped to drink some water from a public water fountain in the streets of RBS and noticed something written on the frame of the fountain just beside the dispenser, the perfect spot for a person to see it when he bends over to drink:

The water authorities are calling on the people of Israel to take care to cut out as much waste of water as possible and to lessen their usage of water as much as possible. After 5 consecutive years of drought, the water situation in Israel is at its worst ever (in the 70 years of measuring) with all water levels being registered at historic lows. Minister Yuval Steinitz says that our water reserves are meant for a year or two years worth of water, not for 5, so the situation is currently extremely dire.

While they are looking for more solutions, they continue with desalinization and other solutions currently in effect.

To that end, the water authorities are calling on the public to put forth efforts to conserve more water. They suggest fixing any leaks that one might have in a home and not let them continue, such as toilet or faucet leaks - a dripping faucet can waste up to 60 liters of water a day. They encourage the public to flush using the small handle on the toilet, saving 18 liters a day. They are discussions with the various local authorities about limiting the usage of water in public gardens and parks. They ask for people to make efforts to shorten their showers by 2 minutes.
source: TheMarker

The obvious question is, if you already take just a two minute shower, should you stop showering altogether? if you take a 4 minute shower, can you get by on a 2 minute shower?

is the Ein Gedi mineral water company (Kerur-Jafa Tabori and Kibbutz Ein Gedi) overcharging for their water? Maybe. Perhaps. According to Globes they are.

Globes analyzes their soaring profits and has come to the conclusion that Ein Gedi is sold for 2.5-3 times the production costs of the water.

I'll be very happy to hear that Ein Gedi lowers its prices because of the Globes article, but that is too specific for me.

Ein Gedi water is sold at the cheapest prices of all the various mineral water brands, as far as I have seen in the stores. A six-pack of 2 liter bottles of Ein Gedi water costs about 10.90nis  to the consumer. Aqua Nova isn't mineral water, so it does not count, even though it is cheaper. Neviot and Mei Eden are significantly more expensive costing closer to the 15nis range for a 6-pack, and those are 1.5 liter bottles instead of the 2 liter bottles sold by Ein Gedi. Other brands generally sell in the range of 12nis per 6-pack of 1.5 liter bottles.

So perhaps Ein Gedi is a bit overpriced and should bring their prices down, but why did Globes not compare their profits against the profits of the various other companies? Maybe the production costs are higher for the other companies or maybe not, but in such an article strongly implying that Ein Gedi is fleecing the public I would expect a comparison to the other, more expensive, brands.

I love elections.

So much more gets done during election season than in 2 or four years of actual government. After elections were called, just a short 10 days ago, we've already had a new plan to bring down the cost of living (canceling VAT on basic goods), and now, among other plans announced (such as Defense Minister Yaalon announcing pavement of new roads in Judea and Samaria), Silvan Shalom has announced the cancellation of the water organizations (תאגידי מים).

The water organizations have been a thorn in the side of residents. Some function fairly well and efficient and provide decent to good service, but many do not. They all, even the good ones, have caused the price of water to increase tremendously for the consumer - me and you. Automatically, not taking anything else into account, we all now have to pay VAT on our water, which on its own is an 18% increase. Forget that they now have to also pay for fancy offices, salaries, refreshments, furniture, etc.

So, Minister Silvan Shalom announced that he is putting an end to the water authorities. Instead of the 55 water authorities around Israel, there will be one government office handling it all. In addition to those savings, there will also be a process to make the systems more efficient, which will effect an additional 9% decrease in the price of water.
source: Ynet

so, yes, I love elections. more actual benefits to the citizens of Israel (and probably true in most countries) gets done in the name of elections than at any other time.

I want people to pay the cost of water, not what the"Taagidei Mayim" want tot charge. I don't want people to drink whiskey and take showers in whiskey [because it is cheaper than water]..

  -- MK Miri Regev, about her campaign for the dismantling of the taagidei mayim and returning the control of water to the municipalities, which will lower the price for the consumer.

The Kinneret Is On It's Way To A 20 year Record High

  -- Channel Two News

yet somehow the water prices just keep going up. They were initially raised when there was a water shortage - it was both an issue of supply and demand and a method of encouraging people to use their water more efficiently and to waste less. Somehow, prices always go up out of need but never go down even after that need has been filled.

Headline Of The Day


-- NRG

Because of the years of drought causing the Kinneret to dry up and sink to very low levels, an "island" of sorts had appeared in a section of the Kinneret as the low water allowed the exposure of some land. Because of the increased rainfall this winter, that "island" is almost gone as the water is nearly covering it completely.

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Baruch Hashem we have had a winter blessed with a bounty of rain. The level of the Kinneret is continuing to rise to levels we have not seen in many, many years (it should continue to rise  fut fut fut!!!).

I wonder, though, considering that the water prices were raised due to the sever water shortage we were suffering after years of drought, will the water prices now be knocked back down after our particularly rainy winter?

What I have noticed is that gravity does not apply to prices, as neither does the rule "what goes up must come down". When it comes to prices, while they might be qick to be increased for all sorts of reasons, they rarely come down, and when they do it is very slowly.

What say you?



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The anger and disappointment at the move of the water systems from being under the control of the municipal authorities to external companies has been festering for a while. The main result has been the increase in the price of water, along with the additional charge of VAT tax of 16% that was not charged when under the municipal authority. Cynics say this was done as a way of giving out more jobs to cronies, with the price hikes and taxes necessary for the purpose of being able to rent or build new buildings to house the new water control companies and pay the bloated salaries of the management teams.

While some mayors implemented the move immediately, claiming their hands were tied, other mayors refused to cooperate, saying it is detrimental to the average citizen, and took the risk of breaking the new law in refusal to establish said water companies. At the same time, the Interior Minister came under consistent lobbying and pressure to reverse the decision and integrate the water controls back to the municipal authorities, and closing the external water control companies.

The fight seems to be over. An agreement was reach between the local authorities and the Finance Ministry that will put the water authorities back under the control of the municipal authorities. These water companies will become "municipal companies" under the direct authority of the mayor.

Bill payment will go back to the responsibility of the iryah, the municipality, thus canceling out the double collection systems that had been established - the already existing municipal system along with the newly created water authority systems.

The amount of how much the price of water will be reduced is still under discussion. The government wanted to approve a 5% reduction in prices, while the representatives of the local authorities wanted to implement a price reduction of 30%. (source: Walla News)

d

The past few weeks has been harsh for the Israeli consumer. Prices have been ricing across the board Gas prices went up again twice in recent weeks to unprecedented highs. The government only brought down the prices slightly a couple days ago when they realized the threat of major public protest was increasing rapidly. Then the prices of basic goods started going up. And we have been told that water prices are going to be rising yet again.

The price of water is a major issue. Water was given a special tax, due to the serious drought and water shortage. Then the tax was canceled, but the price of water was raised. Then it was raised again, and now it is being raised again. And somewhere in the middle of all this, Mayor of Bet Shemesh Moshe Abutbol decided to follow the instructions from the Finance Ministry, instructions that many mayors, including previous mayor of Bet Shemesh Dani Vaknin, have refused to follow, and established a separate company to deal with water issues and removed it form the authority of the iryah. One of the consequences of this is that now we have to pay an additional 16% tax on the water - when it was controlled by the iryah there was no VAT tax, but now that it is a separate company the VAT has to be added on.

Now, if that was the way it had to be, so be it. However, many iryahs have refused to implement this change and establish the external company, saying that there is no reason to do so and it will just cost the taxpayer more money and provide no added benefit. Abutbol jumped very quickly to implement the program, saying he just had to do it and had no choice, even though he had previously expressed opposition to it.

Minister of Interior Eli Yishai said yesterday at a deputy mayors conference that the Finance Ministry forced the transfer of authority of the water systems to external companies and took, in exchange, the price of added human resources, directors and deputies, consultants and treasurers, legal teams, secretaries, buildings and cars - all these logistics plus VAT tax. Nobody is doing this in good faith.

Yishai said that we are talking about half a billion shekels flowing into the Finance Ministry coffers on the backs of the citizens of Israel. He called upon the government to cancel the requirement of external companies. (source: Globes) 

Ever since the supervision over the water was stopped, the price of water has become similar to that of a can of cola. The government must subsidize the price of water.

   --- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ)

I am just wondering, with all the rain we just had here the past few days, when I can go back to leaving the water running while I brush my teeth and not feeling guilty about it. They might have to put the price of water back down before that happens...

Don't forget, starting tonight, to add the prayer for rain, ותן טל ומטר לברכה in shmoneh esrei prayers. We need every drop. I might tape my latest water bill into my siddur to remind me to have extra kavan at this point every time I daven..

This fellow in Chatzor Glilit got a water bill for 1,5000,843.50 and at the Iryah they tell him to pay and then complain and get a refund..

I dont know what time that burst pipe started spewing its water, but I called 106 when I saw it. Impressively they answered the phone right away and as soon as I started to talk they told me they already know about it and are dealing with it.

An hour and a half later the pipe was still shpritzing out its water like a geyser.

It looks like our efficient Iryah has figured out an efficient way of scamming the residents out of their money. I say "scamming" because that is what it looks like. I was willing to call it a glitch and a mistake, but people affected told me that that is not the case and this was changed "lechatchila".

It seems the City of Bet Shemesh decided, I have no idea why, to wipe their records clean. Of course they didn't wipe the records of who owes how much money to them clean. Rather, to wipe clean the details of how many people live in each household.

This is a detail that affects the price each household will pay for their water.

In the middle of the winter last year, the government decided to impose a water tax on every household due to the severe water shortage. The price to be paid was determined to be a sliding scale, depending on how many people live in each house. The more people, obviously, the greater the allotment of water at the cheaper rates.

To get the higher allotments, all you had to do was update your details at the Iryah, show them your teudat zehut that says how many members of your family... and presto, you have more water at cheaper prices.

Granted, at the time it was a big hassle. You could fax a form in, but more often than not they didn't update the records in a timely fashion and residents still had to pay higher prices on at least one bill. That is if they even updated the records at all based on the form. The only way to be 100% sure the records were updated was to actually go down to the office physically, take care of it and ask them for confirmation.

Ok, no big deal. It was a new system, there were sure to be glitches and inefficiencies. Not such a big deal.

Now, 6 months later, people are getting their new bills about now, and many people are opening their bills to see they are paying the higher rates on their water usage. Why? Upon further inspection they are noticing that the bill at the top states how many people live in the household and their number was reset back to the default of 2. That means a family of 5 kids is now paying the regular rates for 2 people, and the rest of the water usage for the other 5 kids is being paid at higher rates ( no longer in the form of a tax, as the drought tax was canceled, but the water rates themselves are also on a sliding scale per members of the household).

BH, I did not have this problem on this bill (who knows what will happen on the next bill..) and mine still has the correct number of family members on it.

A lot of people though are getting the bills with the number reset to 2.

The following is an email a friend sent to me about it:

A quick warning for anyone that changed the amount of persons living in your house for the purposes of the water calculation on your iriya bills...
The iriya apparently sent out a notice with the last bill that you needed to update the amount of people living in your house...seeing as i had done that only a few months earlier, i just assumed that they were talking about people that had not updated them (I admit that i do not recall reading the notice, i assumed it was not relevant). Evidently they wiped the slate clean on this billing cycle (perfectly logical that my kids all left home at that span...my one-year old is especially enjoying life out in the real world...) and so this month we were charged with water as a 2 person household again....
Make sure you check your bill and update the iriya as necessary (you need the "sefach" of your TZ as evidence of how many people live at home..)
this seems like a pretty backhanded way for the iriya to make some extra cash and i am not impressed....

I have no idea why they would wipe their records clean and make everyone come register again. I would really prefer to say the whole thing was a glitch, as glitches and mistakes do happen in any and every system. Unfortunately it just looks like another stupidity coming out of our local bureaucracy, and possibly might be a real scam to get more money out of unsuspecting residents who don't pay such close attention to the fine print.

Israel ran what turned out to be a very successful PR campaign over the course of the summer. The campaign was due to the serious water shortfall, and convinced people to conserve water.

Israel is now being sued, for 850000NIS, by the larger grass companies claiming that the campaigns about Israel drying up seriously harmed their business.

They claim that Israel portrayed, in its campaign, images that were far worse than reality, and protrayed what people are allowed to do as far as watering their lawns, as far less than what the law actually allowed.

So, because Israel portrayed an image of not being allowed to water lawns, people stayed away from laying new gardens of grass, thus harming their business.

I can't see the courts awarding these companies any damages in this case. There was a national need to conserve water at serious levels. They should be sued by Israel for encouraging people to lay lawns and water grass in a country that has had such serious water shortages over the past 10 years (really always, but it has been worse the past 10 years or so)