The Water Authority doubts that the Kinneret will completely fill up this year despite the heavy January rains.
The Water Authority today resumed pumping from the Kinneret, after two months, and it also announced that it does not believe that the lake will completely fill up this year. This follows a very dry February and despite and extremely wet January. The water level rose by another 0.5 centimeters in the past 24 hours to 210.20 meters below sea level, and it is now 1.40 meters shy from the upper red line, which denotes that the lake is full.
"I doubt that it will be possible to close the gap to the upper red line," Water Authority spokesman Uri Shor told "Channel 2 News". "The Water Authority believes that there will be a 50-80 centimeter shortfall."
The Kinneret's water level is due to the heavy rains in January and because there has been no pumping from the lake since late December. Shor said that pumping was suspended for maintenance work. "The reason for the high water level is that the Water Authority's policy is to pump less from the lake regardless of the stormy weather this year," he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 28, 2013
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