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Israelis, especially in the south, have been drinking desalinated water from the tap for the past two years, but increasingly, that trend is not catching on in the rest of the country as the perception that tap water is unhealthy continues to take hold. The desalination plant in Ashkelon produces much of that region’s water, and is one of the most technologically advanced facility of its kind in the world.

“The quality of desalinated water in our taps is increasing every year,” says Jacobo Sack, a veteran official at Israel’s National Water Carrier, Mekorot, and now a water and wastewater quality consultant. The increasing awareness of Israel’s acute water resource shortage has put the issue of drinking water at the forefront of the national agenda. Increasingly, Israelis will rely on desalinated water, both for drinking and irrigation, and the number of desalination plans in the country is slated to increase.

But there seems to be a vast disconnect between the contention by experts that desalinated tap water is clean and healthy, and the perception of just the opposite by large segments of the population. While there are no hard figures showing how many people refuse to drink tap water, preferring instead the bottled option, the phenomenon is quite prevalent, especially in the greater Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem areas. Some of the most common reasons given for not drinking tap water are: inconsistent water quality testing, frequent Health Ministry warnings for certain areas, the perception that water-carrying pipes are old and rusty, and, finally the taste.

“Ninety eight percent of our water resources are being used, so there is nothing under the ground we haven’t gotten to. Desalination is the only answer and the quality of the tap water is excellent, I drink it, and my daughters drink it,” Sack adds.

“Mistakes do happen, but the Health Ministry has done a gradually better job of monitoring water quality. People don’t believe tap water is healthy because there is a misconception that the chlorine in the water is damaging to health, it isn’t. It changes the taste of water, but there is nothing unhealthy about our tap water. Similarly, people think desalinated water is dirty water,” Sack says.

Professor Eilon Adar, Director of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, is emphatic: desalinated tap water is the best possible water you can drink. “I’m a hydrologist. I drink tap water in my house and not because I can’t afford bottled water, but because it is clean and healthy,” Adar, considered one of the foremost water experts in the world, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Adar says that the water quality in Israel’s water distribution system “is amongst the best in the world.”

So why doesn’t the general public believe that tap water is safe? Could it possibly have something to do with the frequent health ministry warnings advising residents of cities countrywide to boil their tap water before drinking it?

Some Israelis are psychologically unable to accept the fact that tap water is clean and healthy, even when that fact is based on hard science. “There is a myth that bottled water is better for you, I know that it is only a myth. But actually the reality is that there are elements from the plastic that can seep into the bottle and enter the water and that can be bad for you. In general, I don’t trust the tap water in Israel, I hear so much about pollution,” says a former Australian now living in Israel. Some just don’t trust the water-carrying pipe system, and others just like having cold water bottles handily available in the fridge. Many households filter tap water with various products, even though those companies clearly state on their packages that there are no health benefit in doing so. Still others will drink tap water when they are in the north, but not in the central or southern parts of the country. When it comes to water intake, it seems, Israelis prefer to play it safe, and safety is by and large perceived to be found in bottled water. “As a pregnant person I would not drink tap water because of the inconsistent testing and the quality of the piping is not very good,” says a Jerusalem resident, who adds that she has no problem drinking tap water in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona. Shmulik Shmueli, a member of Kibbutz Eilot near Eilat, and who is in charge of the Kibbutz’s water, says he only drinks bottled water. “I find tap water scary because I don’t know where it comes from and when I drink it I always get stomach aches.”

While there are many level headed Israelis who believe there is nothing unhealthy about drinking tap water, it seems that water industry professionals just cannot get their message across to the wider public, and as a result, many still feel that tap water is not safe. Adar says the ingrained perception likely started in the 60’s and early 70s when the level of dissolved salts in water was high and that was considered unhealthy for people’s kidneys. But the major reason people don’t drink tap water, according to Adar, is that they don’t like the taste. Adar says Mekorot is working on the taste problem.

Rafi Ifergan, VP for technology and engineering products, says Israelis better get used to drinking desalinated tap water, as there’s going to be a lot more of it around in the future. Right now, Israel’s household sector consumes 800 million cubic meters of water a year, of which 130 million cubic meters is desalinated water. Within 2.5 to 4 years that number will rise to 200 million cubic meters as two more desalination plants are established in Ashdod and Nahal Sorek. Within 5 years, Israeli consumption of desalinated tap water will rise to 500 million cubic meters, Ifergan says, adding that water consumption in Israel rises on average by 3 to 4 percent every year. There are four sources of water in Israel: the sea of Galilee, the coastal aquifer, the mountain aquifer, and desalination plants. And as natural water resources deplete, the importance of desalination becomes obvious. So why are people reluctant to drink tap water? Ifergan says Israel is part of a trend, mainly in America and Western Europe, which sees citizens who can afford it buying bottled water, as the marketing of that water becomes smarter.

A spokesperson for the Standards Institute of Israel, which overseas water re-use technology standards, says that while bottled water companies advertise their water as coming from natural sources, they never say that tap water is unclean. “They wouldn’t dare do that, because they know they can’t back it up,” the spokesperson said.

“Not only can you save money [by not buying mineral water] you can also save the hassle of carrying the bottles,” Sacks, the water consultant, says.

Mekorot’s Ifergan also points to the age of pipes in old buildings as a factor in the bad reputation tap water gets. “The problem here is aesthetic, not health related. Some buildings are old and have old pipes, and sometimes the water that comes out of them gets a certain color, so the citizen won’t drink it,” he says.

According to economic data on the soft drink industry in Israel, both of the country’s major bottled water companies have seen a very dynamic growth rate over the past decade. The reasons for this are the decreasing cost of bottled water as a result of increased competition, and the increased perception of the low quality of tap water, a perception fed by frequent Health Ministry announcements warning of contamination and suggesting residents boil water before use. Interestingly, an improving economy and growing health awareness is expected to be a major factor behind the expected growth in bottled water sales, even though the experts agree: there is nothing unhealthy about desalinated tap water.

Farmers using drinking-quality water from the world’s largest desalination plant in Ashkelon, on Israel’s southern Mediterranean coast, have discovered that the water is lacking in some needed elements, like calcium and magnesium, and too rich in boron. That’s not a problem for humans drinking the water, but it’s terrible for tomatoes, basil, citrus trees, flowers and other economically important plants. Mekorot’s Ifergan is as emphatic as the other experts: the quality of the tap water here is excellent. “It is tested during its production and transportation, and empirical results show that the quality is excellent,” he says.

Danielle Singer contributed to this article