The Shorak A desalination plant has resumed operation following a situation assessment that included water sector officials and the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, according to Lior Bacalu of Channel 12.
The Shorak A desalination plant resumed operation Thursday afternoon after a situation assessment convened by the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure with water sector heads, Channel 12's Lior Bacalu reported. The plant had initially been shut down earlier in the week as part of a broader desalination outage, and an earlier resumption was reported on Monday by Ynet, though the current resumption follows the ministerial assessment.
As The Zioneer reported on Monday Aug 31 at 11:41 Jerusalem, all desalination plants south of Hadera were shut down, with an industry source ruling out a cyber attack. Updates throughout the day attributed the shutdown to seawater turbidity (version 2), the Water Authority confirmed five of six plants were shut due to weather (version 3), water supply to agriculture in Ramat Negev was cut (version 4), and Tel Aviv municipality ordered city-wide water use reduction (version 5). Later that same Monday, Ynet reported that the Sorek A plant had resumed operations (version 6). Three days later, on Thursday, the plant's resumption was again reported, this time after a high-level assessment.
The shutdowns were triggered by high seawater turbidity caused by weather conditions, which can clog intake filters and force precautionary shutdowns. The Water Authority had prioritized protecting the plants from damage. The disruptions affected water supply to agriculture and prompted municipal conservation measures.
It remains unclear whether all other desalination plants have also resumed operation, and whether water restrictions for agriculture and Tel Aviv have been lifted. No further details on the plant's capacity or the current water system status were provided.
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