Israel Warned of Disaster in Water Crisis : Mideast: The agriculture minister holds an emergency meeting on the shortage. He plans to order farmers to stop irrigating their fields with drinkable water.

Israeli Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan held an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss his country’s imperiled water supply after a government report indicated that Israel is on the verge of a critical shortage.

Eitan, a former general, announced after the meeting that he would not fire Water Commissioner Tsemah Ishai, although Ishai came under pungent criticism in the report by Israel’s state comptroller, Miriam Ben-Porat.

But Eitan left no doubt as to the seriousness of the shortage. “I think the water situation is on the brink of disaster,” he said, “and I fear very much that by next summer we will face a very severe problem with drinking water.”

The agriculture minister said he would order farmers to stop irrigating their fields with drinkable water.

Economics and Planning Minister David Magen said Thursday that Israel would have to re-evaluate its water price structure in the next few days. “Realistic prices have to be set,” Magen declared.

The water shortage in Israel has suddenly become a volatile domestic political issue, rivaling the problem of settling, housing and finding jobs for the huge influx of Soviet Jewish immigrants.

The 62-page report by Comptroller Ben-Porat, issued Wednesday, stated: “Irresponsible water management for 25 years has caused the draining of Israel’s water reserves and seriously damaged their quality.

“There exists no conservation of water resources for future generations,” the report said, adding that the reservoirs have been overdrawn for years and that “the quality in the reservoirs has been persistently declining.”

The report put much of the blame on the Water Commission, which is part of the Agriculture Ministry, for allocating too much water and thus critically depleting underground aquifers.

Salty water and pollutants have also seeped into coastal plain reservoirs, the report stated.

The water crisis has been magnified by a two-month drought in Israel, with the normal rains only now arriving. This has contributed to a drop in water reserves of 56 billion cubic feet, or the equivalent of a year’s supply.

Another major reason for the shortage, according to the report and other water experts, is the subsidized price of water, particularly that bought by farmers. The farmers, through their national lobby, exert strong pressure on the committee of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, that influences decisions on water pricing and allocation.

The comptroller’s report said that to conserve water, particularly for the expected influx of immigrants, farmers should pay the true cost of the water they use.

The experts pointed to the level of fresh-water Lake Tiberias, where volume has fallen to an all-time low, as a reflection of the dangerous situation.

The report provoked comment among longtime critics of Israel’s water allocation system.

Raanan Weitz, a former agriculture policy-maker, declared: “The water commissioner did not fulfill his duties. He does not have the proper background, and he should not have been given the job.”

The report said the responsibility for water should be transferred to an independent body away from the Agriculture Ministry.