CBNNews.com - TIBERIAS, Israel - In view of the alarmingly low water level of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel's national water company, Mekerot, announced plans to build a new dam where the Jordan River flows from the lake.

Mekerot officials are concerned that water levels at the nation's sole source of sweet water may be so low by summer's end that pumps near the Deganya dam may be without water.

Water pumped from these pumps supply several Jordan Valley communities, while 50 million cubic meters is supplied to Jordan under terms of Israel's peace treaty with the Hashemite Kingdom.

The plan is to create a reservoir between the new dam and the Deganya dam to allow Mekorot to pump water from the Kinneret into the "reservoir" between the two dams, making it possible to raise the water level above the Kinneret itself.

According to Mekorot northern district manager Rafi Noy, the dirt embankment will prevent the Jordan River waters from turning back.

"The state of the water economy is not ordinary so we must resort to extraordinary measures," Noy said.

Source: The Jerusalem Post