Environmental issues in Israel
[1][4] Despite having taken these steps, Israel's environment continues to suffer as a rapidly growing population and standard of living contributes to increasing Green House Gas emissions and air pollutants, reductions in natural and open spaces via urbanization, over-pumping of water sources beyond their replenishment rates and deterioration of water used for drinking and irrigation.
[7] At the turn of the century, almost every major river in Israel had become significantly polluted due to many years of waste discharge from industrial and agricultural sources.
Decades of dumping hazardous effluents had all but eradicated aquatic life in the river, causing the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) to file several successful lawsuits against two of the biggest polluters, Deshanim Ltd. And Haifa Chemicals.
[17] By 1998, most of Israel's surface water, rivers and streams, as well as its groundwater reserves, were polluted to a certain degree by industrial and civil waste.
[17] According to Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection, the construction of wastewater treatment facilities have reduced sources of river pollution from 250 to 100 in the period between 1990 and 2010.
[1] According to a report published in 2010 by Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection, a significant number of wells in the center and North of the country have tested positive for varying amounts of pollutants.
[5] Due to its location near the most urbanized and densely populated area of Israel, the Coastal Aquifer is exposed to many sources of pollutants, including chlorides, nitrates, heavy metals, fuels and organic toxins.
[1] As of 2004, approximately 41% of water taken from the Coastal aquifer met safety standards set by the European Union and World Health Organization.
High demand for an expanding population has led to over pumping of the Coastal Aquifer, in some cases eclipsing its recharge rate by upwards of 100%.
A survey by the Hydrological Service of Israel in 2002 found that improperly handled waste from several settlements had filtered into the aquifer, introducing nitrates and other pollutants into the water supply.
[1] In 2016, the DESERVE institute constructed a network of scientific monitoring stations around the Dead Sea, expanding our understanding of declining water levels, freshwater pollution, and the increased occurrence of sinkholes.
Their findings have confirmed previous estimates of water level decline, by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, of approximately a meter a year.
[19] With a rapidly growing population and limited space to expand, Israel has faced significant issues concerning waste disposal over the last few decades.
Following a government order implemented in 1993, the unregulated dumps were closed due to severe contamination of local sources of surface and groundwater.
[8] In other areas, rapid improvements in the standard of living has resulted in a 4-5% annual increase in solid waste, with the average quantity reaching approximately 11,300 tons per year.
[23] Although greenhouse gas emissions have steadily risen from 1996 to 2007, as of 2010 concentrations of Nitrogen oxides and other pollutants have decreased around major traffic sites.
[6][8] However, with little room to expand this rate of growth is putting unsustainable pressure on the environment in the form of increased consumption, transportation, destruction of natural spaces and waste production.
[8] On the Coastal Plain, rapid urbanization, pollution, the introduction of predatory weeds and habitat fragmentation have damaged or destroyed many natural spaces.
[6] According to a report by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection, the pressure exerted by Israel's growing population needs to be reduced in order to prevent the loss of open spaces and ecological corridors near and between surface water bodies.
