by Zalman Nelson<\/p>\n
(IsraelNN.com) A letter sent by the Israeli non-profit group for ethical government, Ometz, to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, calls for a review of a 2004 deal to import 50 million cubic meters of drinking water of from Turkey\u2019s Mangabey River. According to Ometz, Israel paid an undisclosed deposit on the 20-year agreement, which comes with an option for\u00a0five more years,\u00a0but the project never began.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s dwindling water supply, which\u00a0prompted the Water Authority\u2019s recently launched \u201cDrought Tax\u201d on\u00a0high water use, has brought to light the water importing-deal signed with Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the tremendous water shortage and the increased fines imposed on Israeli citizens, Ometz is calling for a review of the water agreements signed between Israel and Turkey.\u00a0Israel has already paid unknown amounts for the deal, but there is no water,\u201d wrote Ometz Director Aryeh Avneri.<\/p>\n
According to the letter by Ometz, the terms of the agreement established a sale price of up to\u00a0$1 per cubic meter of water: 13-18 cents per cubic meter and 60-80 cents per cubic meter for import and distribution. Given Israel\u2019s water needs, an estimated 50 million dollars a year was to be paid to Turkey. While a deposit was apparently paid, the letter alleges that the deal was never launched.<\/p>\n
The water deal was signed by the foreign ministers of Israel and Turkey and called for the importation of\u00a050 million cubic meters of drinking water, says the letter. \u201cCarrying out this agreement is the duty of Israel\u2019s Water Commission and Turkey\u2019s Water Authority (DSI), and the governments of Israel and Turkey bear collective responsibility for ensuring that all agreements are followed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ometz\u2019s letter challenges that the deal failed to establish a timetable for delivery and failed to appoint a director for the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe turn to you and request a full investigation into this signed agreement to import water, why this program has still not yet started, and what amount of money, if any, remains to pay to begin importing,\u201d\u00a0Ometz wrote Lindenstrauss.<\/p>\n
Water tax The tax went in to effect retroactively on July 1 and was criticized by local government councils who said that citizens will be unable to limit water usage. Others criticized the tax on the grounds that the added revenues do not return to the water industry, but rather are drawn into the Finance Ministry\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n Source:\u00a0www.israelnationalnews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zalman Nelson (IsraelNN.com) A letter sent by the Israeli non-profit group for ethical government, Ometz, to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, calls for a review of a 2004 deal to import 50 million cubic meters of drinking water of from Turkey\u2019s Mangabey River. According to Ometz, Israel paid an undisclosed deposit on the 20-year agreement, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":32532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,89],"tags":[173],"class_list":["post-13907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-turkey","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>The water tax imposes an NIS 20 fine per cubic meter of water on families containing four or fewer members who use more than 30 cubic meters of water in two months. Exceeding the quota\u00a0cost NIS 8 per cubic meter prior to the tax. Families with more than four members get an additional three cubic meters per family member.<\/p>\n