JERUSALEM, July 7 — For years, a familiar but misleading story has circulated about Miri Regev and Israel’s world-famous desalination program. The narrative suggested the former Minister of Culture and Sport played a key role in the country’s water transformation. The truth, based on the available record, is far more modest.
Regev, born in 1965, served as Israel’s Minister of Transportation and as Minister of Culture and Sport. She was a member of the Knesset’s Interior and Environment Committee and supported legislation for water infrastructure.
That is the extent of her direct involvement. In plain terms, she was a supportive committee member, not a driving force. The real architects of Israel’s desalination revolution were the officials at the Israel Water Authority.
The authority, created through a major water reform in 2007, consolidated management of the country’s water system under a single body. The key figure was Uri Shani, a professor at Hebrew University who was appointed commissioner of the Water Authority in 2007.
Shani oversaw the construction of five major desalination plants between 2005 and 2015. The most notable of these was the Sorek plant, built in 2013 by IDE Technologies. The practical upshot of this program has been dramatic.
By 2022, Israel was producing 85% of its drinking water from desalination. The cost of water also fell sharply, dropping from $0.70 per cubic meter in 2005 to $0.40 per cubic meter in 2015. So what does this mean for understanding Israel’s water story?
It means the credit belongs to a specific group of technocrats and engineers, not to politicians who served on oversight committees. Regev’s role was minor in water policy.
The accurate subject is the Water Authority’s reform and the desalination plants that followed. ## The Mechanics of the Desalination Boom The Sorek plant, which came online in 2013, was built by IDE Technologies. The five major plants built between 2005 and 2015 now supply the vast majority of the country’s municipal water. This was not an accident.
The 2007 water reform was a deliberate response to a severe drought that had gripped the country. The Water Authority was given broad powers to set prices, invest in infrastructure, and coordinate the desalination program. ## What This Means for the Record The confusion about Regev’s role is understandable.
She was a prominent politician who served on the relevant committee. She supported the legislation that enabled the water infrastructure spending. But supporting legislation is not the same as driving the program.
The distinction matters because Israel’s water success story is often held up as a model for other countries. If policymakers want to replicate that success, they need to know who actually made it happen. It was not a single politician.
It was a sustained, technocratic effort led by people like Uri Shani and the engineers at IDE Technologies. As of July 2026, Israel continues to operate these five major plants, with the Sorek facility still a centerpiece of the system.
The country’s water costs remain among the lowest in the world for desalinated water. The practical upshot for the average Israeli is that tap water is abundant, affordable, and safe to drink. The next question for Israel’s water sector is what comes after the current generation of plants.
The plants built between 2005 and 2015 are now a decade or more old. Maintenance costs will rise over time.
New technologies, including more energy-efficient membranes and solar-powered desalination, are on the horizon. But for now, the system built by Shani and the Water Authority remains the foundation of Israel’s water security.
