Israel Water Context

8. The Kinneret Basin

The Kinneret basin occupies the northeastern part of Israel, and has the highest precipitation in the country. The basin includes Lake Kinneret, lying at -210 m altitude, and the entire area that drains to it from the Hermon mountain, the eastern Galilee and the Golan mountains. The contribution of the basin to the water economy is estimated as ~560 million m³/yr, that is, around 25% of the consumption of water in Israel. Contrary to the rest of the basins, in this basin mainly surface water which flows in the Jordan River throughout the year and in a few of the perennial streams, or in ephemeral streams, is exploited.

Groundwater is only exploited to a small extent. Up to the 1990s ~35 million m³/yr was pumped, on average, mainly in the eastern upper Galilee (around 20 million m³/yr). Production began to grow in scope in the 1990s to ~60 million m³/yr as a result of borehole development in the Golan (around 10 million m³/yr), and in the lower Galilee, to the west of the Kinneret (around 30 million m³/yr).

Lake Kinneret, which is in the Jordan Rift, is the only lake existing within Israeli territory. It is around 168 km² in area, around 20 km from north to south, its average depth is around 25 m (its maximum depth is around 45 m) and its volume is around 4,140 million m³. This lake is a tourist attraction for recreation and pilgrims from both in and outside of the country, a source of livelihood for the tourism industry and for fishermen, is surrounded by a unique and ecological landscape, and is an important source of water. However, beneath the lake there is brine that is liable to cause serious salinity in the lake and deterioration of the water quality. Because of this the quality of the water is safe-guarded by constant monitoring, and there is strict surveillance of the water level.

The brine leaks into Lake Kinneret through several large springs at its margins (at concentrations of about 2,000-20,000 mg/Cl/l) and, to a lesser extent, through the lake bottom. The "saline water carrier", which was completed in 1967, drains the large saline springs as well as the brine pumped in boreholes to the northwest of the Kinneret, and transports the water to the southern Jordan River. The saline carrier drains around 17 million m³ of saline water every year. Already in the first five years of its operation the saline carrier brought to a decrease in the chloride concentration in the Kinneret from around 350-400 mg/l to around 200-250 mg/l.

The natural drain of Lake Kinneret is the southern Jordan River, which flows to the Dead Sea. As of 1932, its natural outlet was dammed, and the water level of the lake is regulated between the maximum level set to prevent flooding of  the settlements around the lake (-2008.8 m) and the minimum level set, necessitated for preserving the quality of the water (-212 m altitude), in accord with the operational considerations. Since then, the minimum level has been lowered several times, down to the -215.5 altitude at the peak of the continuous water crisis. The decision to lower the level was accompanied by hydrological and ecological studies, most of which showed that lowering the water level of the Kinneret would not hurt the quality of the water. In 2004 the minimum level was raised to -213 m in the framework of the Water Commission's plan for rehabilitating the aquifers. The volume of water that can be regulated between the minimum and maximum level, ~680 million m³/yr, is called the "active store" and it constitutes around 16% of the lake's volume.

The natural drainage is now replaced by the "National Carrier" project, which transports the water from the Kinneret westward and southward, regulating the supply on the way with the help of large collecting pools. The pumping station pumping the water into the national carrier is located at the north of the Kinneret and pumps on average ~340 million m³/yr. The pumping is spread over the whole year and is increased in the summer months, depending on the availability of the water in the rest of the reservoirs.

The catchment area of Lake Kinneret is around 2730 km² and includes the sources of the Jordan River, The Golan, and the eastern Galilee. The sources of the Jordan River are the Dan (270 million m³/yr), the Banyas (120 million m³/yr) and the Snir (120 million m³/yr) springs that flow at the foot of the Hermon Mountain. The spring waters drain to the Hula Valley and join to form the Jordan River. Adding to the upper part of the Jordan are surface waters from streams (20 million m³/yr) and spring waters (50 million m³/yr). Against this, local consumption in this area and consumption for agriculture in the Galilee mountains takes away from the Jordan a total of ~120 million m³/yr. The discharge of the Jordan before it enters the Kinneret is thus ~ 460 million m³/yr. Other sources of Kinneret water are from direct rain on the lake (67 million m³/yr), saline springs at the lake's margins (6 million m³/yr, after diversion) and surface runoff from the Galilee and the Golan (~100 million m³/yr).  Upstream those flowing to the Kinneret from the Golan there are large reservoirs in which an additional amount of ~25 million m³/yr can be accumulated from the flood flow that occurs in the winter season.

          Percentage of waters entering the Kinneret from the different sources
    (perennial average).

The Jordan River, whose water salinity is around 20 mg/Cl/l, contributes most of the water in the lake, thereby introducing on average around 9,000 ton/Cl/yr into the lake. In comparison, the saline springs that contribute only about 1% of the water (after diversion of most of its waters by the saline carrier) contribute most of the salt to the lake (around 90,000 ton/Cl/yr on average).