Despite rains, water situation not much better

Kinneret water level stands at 212.54 meters below sea level, rising from 212.665, but is still only just above dangerously low "black line."

By SHARON UDASIN
kinneret tiberias 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
kinneret tiberias 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
While the water level of Lake Kinneret has risen more than 10 centimeters since last week’s heavy rainfall began, officials still warn that this additional deluge does not make Israel’s water needs any less severe.
“[Last week’s rain] was fantastic and we pray for more, but we shouldn’t forget that altogether, if you look at the whole country, even this last winter wasn’t a good winter, and it’s less than average when it comes to rainfall. Our demand for water is larger than the average,” said Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor on Sunday.
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On Sunday morning, the Kinneret was 212.54 meters below sea level, rising from 212.665 meters below sea level the previous Sunday, just before the weeklong rainy spell began.
While a slight improvement, this measurement is still only 1.735 meters above the dangerously low minus 214.4-meter “black line.”
“This year was better last year; this March was better than last March. If this March, for instance, Lake Kinneret rose 65 cm., last March Lake Kinneret rose only 31 cm.,” Schor said.
“But we must also say that this year and this March, even more than ever, there is a huge difference between the rainfall in the North, which was quite good, and the center and the South, which was very bad.”
Yet even if rainfall in the north was “good,” the reservoir is still missing 3.74 meters, and will stop rising toward the end of May, Schor predicted.
“This winter, we didn’t make up for our lack of water and didn’t even fulfill this year’s demands,” Schor said.
Rain continued in the North on Sunday and is expected to fall through Tuesday, when showers may spread as far south as the northern Negev, the Israel Meteorological Service reported.