Overview
- Most Mediterranean desalination plants stopped and restarted repeatedly over three days, and as of Wednesday only two facilities have been partially brought back online while turbidity recurs.
- Officials say unusually high seawater turbidity from organic material — likely a microalgae bloom carried northward — clogged prefilters and forced automatic shutdowns of reverse‑osmosis systems.
- Authorities prioritized household supply and ordered cuts to agricultural and public irrigation, with some regional councils temporarily halting farm watering to conserve treated water.
- The Israel National Cyber Directorate and Water Authority have ruled out a cyberattack, and seawater samples are being analyzed by oceanographic researchers to confirm the contaminant and its origin.
- The episode exposes vulnerability in a system that supplies roughly 70% of Israeli homes with desalinated Mediterranean water and could prompt reviews of plant resilience and alternative sourcing.