Fresh Water Source

The world's largest reverse osmosis desalination plant (and a target of Gazan missiles) is in the Ashkelon area. The desalination plant provides fresh water to Israel and supplies Gaza with its drinking water. The Israeli government plans to build four more plants which will make the country water independent.

The Ashkelon plant has been targeted by Gazan missiles. A Gazan missile hit would hurt Israel but would also stop all the fresh water flow to Gaza. Which, of course, gave me the idea for today's cartoon.

The story of Israel's technological advances in converting sea water to fresh drinking water probably didn't make it to your local newspaper (or the International Media for that matter) but here's a recent piece from Popular Mechanics:

"The Ashkelon Desalination Plant, which opened in 2005, converts more than 26 billion gallons of Mediterranean Sea water into fresh water for the State of Israel each year—5 to 6 percent of total demand. Ashkelon is not only the largest reverse-osmosis desalination plant in the world, it's also one of the few public plants to recover waste heat to improve efficiency and reduce costs." -more