Tour A

The Ashkelon Desalination Plant is the largest in Israel, producing over 100 MCM annually, which is 15% of Israel’s drinking water. We will consider what happens when the sea is polluted and discuss water security for Israel and the region. The desalination plant tour in Ashkelon is available only on Tuesdays and prior coordination is required.

*An alternative option is the Ashdod Desalination Plant.

The Shafdan Plant collects, treats, and reclaims wastewater in Israel's coastal urban areas and industrial zones. It prevents the raw sewage from being discharged into the Mediterranean, and instead purifies the sewer water and pumps it to the Negev desert to irrigate winter crops. The interactive tour of the plant includes talks, educational films, and hands-on activities. Visitors tour the various stations of the plant, including pretreatment, settling basins, the Archimedes screw, anaerobic digesters, and more. They get to witness the exciting process of reclaiming raw wastewater for agricultural irrigation. 

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* There is a fee for this stop on the tour.

Humans first began to settle in Ashkelon 10,000 years ago. Ashkelon is home to ancient structures that date back even as far as 1850 BCE. This park contains archeological remains from many different civilizations, including Canaanites, Philistines, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, and Crusaders. Here, we will view ancient irrigation technology and discuss water scarcity, water technology, and water security in Israel and in Gaza. The park also includes an overlook of the Gaza Strip.

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* There is a fee for this stop on the tour.

Here, we learn about transboundary pollution- its causes and effects. Sewage is dumped into the Mediterranean Sea from all over Gaza for two reasons: there are not enough Wastewater Treatment Plants in the Gaza Strip and there is not enough consistent electricity supplied to run the Wastewater Treatment Plants that do exist. Moreover, rivers and streams have also become sewage dumping sites. Wadi Hanun- Nahal Hanun flows from the northern Gaza Strip and connects to Nahal Shikma, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Zikim Beach near the Erez Checkpoint (one of the entrances from Israel to the Gaza Strip). The sewage flows from Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip into the Hanoun Stream. Israel has invested 40 million shekels to lay a pipe to absorb the sewage and lead it to the sewage treatment facility in Sderot so that the sewage from Nahal Hanoun will not contaminate the reservoir of Shikmim. The Shikmim Reservoir absorbs rainwater and infuses it into the coastal aquifer.