‘Extremely rare event:’ Miles-long microalgae bloom knocks out most of Israel’s desalination plants

A microalgae bloom has spread along Israel's Mediterranean coast. Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institute

by  By Laura Paddison

 

A miles-long microalgae bloom in the Mediterranean Sea has been blamed for temporarily knocking offline many of Israel’s major desalination plants this week, threatening its main source of drinking water.

Five of the country’s six coastal desalination plants — which convert seawater into drinkable water — shut down on Sunday, according to Mekorot, Israel’s national water company. Since then, some of these facilities, which are privately owned and operated, have partially resumed operations, but only one was operating at full capacity on Thursday.

“An event of this kind has never occurred before in Israel … it was an extremely rare event,” said Lior Gutman, a spokesperson for Mekorot, although he stressed in roughly 99% of cases, there has been no drinking water shortage. 

 

Still, it’s an alarming situation given the country’s heavy dependence on desalination for drinking water. Israel is arid and has neither big rivers nor abundant rainfall, but its mastery of this technology has made it a water superpower. Desalination now provides at least 65% of its drinking water, with most plants located on the Mediterranean coast.

The problems started at the weekend, as a “sporadic, vast event of contaminates occurred across the Israeli coastline,” said Edo Bar-Zeev, an associate professor in water research at Ben-Gurion University, in Israel. When he and other scientists looked closer, they discovered it was microalgae, tiny organisms that feed on sunlight, carbon dioxide and nutrients in the water — and which can grow rapidly. 

Microscope images of microalgae from the bloom that formed along the Israeli coast. Tali Covas

 

The microalgae bloom — stretching more than a dozen miles at least, according to Bar-Zeev — is believed to have originated in the Nile Delta and traveled northward with the sea’s currents up Israel’s coast. This is “the first time I saw something in this extent,” said Bar-Zeev, who has been testing the coastal water for 20 years.

The country’s desalination facilities mostly use a technology called “reverse osmosis,” where water is pre-treated to remove larger contaminants, before it’s pushed through membranes which filter out salt, bacteria and other molecules to leave clean drinking water. 

 Algae, and the substances they produce, can foul and damage the membranes, said Michael Christopher Low, director of the Middle East Center at the University of Utah. If there’s too much suspended material in the water, the treatment processes cannot keep up. 

 

It’s happened before. A severe “red tide” — a harmful algae bloom — in the Gulf of Oman in 2008 and 2009 affected many desalination plants in that region.

In Israel, the government water system has “stepped in to close the gap” caused by the plant closures, Mekorot’s Gutman said. This has included pumping water from the Sea of Galilee, activating groundwater wells and using national water reserves.

Some cities have faced short-term local restrictions, including on garden irrigation and filling swimming pools, but the the main limitations affected farmers who use drinking water-quality water for irrigation, as opposed to those who use recycled water, Gutman said.

The timing compounded the problem. It happened in summer “when water demand in Israel is at its highest,” he said, adding “the situation has been challenging.” 

Israel's Water Authority places drinking water storage tanks near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 31, 2026, as part of emergency preparations after five of Israel's six seawater desalination plants were temporarily shut down. Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu/Getty Images

 

A bloom occurs when the right combination of environmental factors in the water come together that allow the algae to grow rapidly, said Tamar Guy-Haim, a marine ecologist at the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute. These include nutrients, temperature, light, currents and mixing.

Mekorot said this recent bloom was part of “very unusual combination of factors,” including a sea storm that increased turbidity — the amount of suspended matter in the water — and raised sea temperatures to 86 Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) and above. 

 

The extent of the disruption is striking. Desalination facilities have been forced to close before due to algae or jellyfish, “but multiple facilities over the large portion of our coast is something that is definitely abnormal,” Ben-Zeev said.

It’s something the country needs to figure out how to deal with — and will, he added. “It’s a fair estimation that this will not be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event … you can assume that this will occur more and more through climate change.”

As the planet heats up, driven by humans burning fossil fuels, the oceans are changing. Temperatures are at record highs, currents are shifting and stronger storms wash more pollutants into the water, including sewage and fertilizers, which can trigger huge algae blooms. 

The Sorek desalination plant near the Israeli city of Rishon LeZion on November 22, 2021. This plant was one of the five temporarily knocked offline. Gil Cohen Magen/Xinhua/Getty Images

 

This temporary crisis also exposes a broader concern, experts say.

Desalination is becoming increasingly popular, especially as the climate crisis drives more severe heat and drought, undermining water security. But this growing dependence on a centralized, technical solution carries risks. “This event is causing considerable alarm and even some criticism that the system is too vulnerable to a dramatic disruption,” Low said. 

 

This could be natural or climate change-driven events, but there’s also the possibility of military and cyber threats. Desalination plants in the Gulf have been targeted and damaged during the US-Iran war, raising significant alarm in a region that depends overwhelmingly on this technology. Hackers have also targeted water facilities, including in the US.

Oil spills are another big concern. “It’s not if, it’s just when an oil spill in the vicinity of desalination facilities will occur,” Ben-Zeev said. A lot of plants are in water-scarce countries that are also big oil producers, such as the Gulf states.

A spill could potentially take plants offline for a much longer time than this microalgae bloom, he added. “That to me is way more worrying.”

Israeli tech company aiming to cool the Earth with masses of tiny particles

 

A sun halo appears in the sky over northern Israel, May 2, 2026. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

by  By ToI Staff

 

Stardust Solutions wants to combat global warming by releasing millions of tons of particles to reflect small amounts of sunlight, NYT reports, but critics warn of dangers in playing with weather

 

An Israeli tech company has revealed the content of tiny particles it hopes will one day be used to combat global warming by scattering millions of tons of them into the atmosphere to reflect away sunlight, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Stardust Solutions had previously kept the makeup of its geoengineering particles a closely-guarded secret, protected with nondisclosure agreements.

As it turns out, they are made from amorphous silica, which is a food additive, and calcium carbonate, which is in eggshells and limestone.

 

The company, which is led by former figures from Israel’s nuclear program, on Thursday began publishing research papers on its product.

The idea is to disperse the particles at high altitude where they would reflect sunlight, cooling down the Earth.

“This is a very powerful tool that will be ready for testing very soon, and we want policymakers to start thinking seriously, ‘What will it take in practice?’” chief executive, Yanai Yedvab, told the Times.

So far, the company has only tested the particles in the laboratory and says it would not test them outdoors unless it were in partnership with a government to lay down the rules and limits of the test, according to the report.

Screen capture from video of Yanai Yedvab, chief executive of Stardust Solutions, April 2026. (YouTube)

Founded in 2023, Stardust Solutions has pulled in $75 million in funding from investors and has applied for a patent. Registered as a US company with an Israeli subsidiary, it has a lab in Ness Ziona, south of Tel Aviv.

The company has two types of particles it is working on. The first could reflect up to one percent of the sunlight, while the second, still in the testing phase, could reflect more than that.

Stardust executives estimate that a starting project to begin cooling the atmosphere could cost around $10 billion. It would require some 10 million tons of particles dispersed over several years, aiming to cool the atmosphere by 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It says the particles are biodegradable, not harmful to people or animals, and would not build up in the soil or oceans.

However, the idea of meddling with the world’s weather faces pushback.

More than 600 scientists and academics have called for an international ban on such projects, while Tennessee and Florida have already banned geoengineering.

Critics cite concerns of unintended consequences and that artificially cooling the planet might lessen calls for countries and industries to cut back emissions that are causing climate change. However, in recent years, as global temperatures have gone up, many researchers and some environmentalists have been more open to studying solar geoengineering methods, the report said.

 

Prakash Kashwan, a professor of environmental studies at Brandeis University, has warned that solar geoengineering could alter weather patterns, impacting food production and economies.

He highlighted those who live in South Asia, East Africa, and Latin America, where annual monsoons are vital for crops.

“There’s this social risk for at least two billion people that is directly connected to the lack of scientific understanding about how interfering with the global temperature thermostat is going to interfere with the monsoon formation,” he told the Times. “We don’t have a solution for those kinds of risks.”

(Martianization) - ‘Impossible’ heatwave struck Philippines in April, scientists find Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila

 

A man tries to cool himself during hot temperatures in Manila, Philippines, last month. Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

 

 

 

The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.

The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.

The results of the latest study to assess the role of human-caused global heating in worsening extreme weather shows how severe the impacts are already, with only 1.2C of average heating above preindustrial levels over the past four years.

 

Another “impossible” heatwave hit west Africa and the Sahel in late March, again causing deaths, and reaching 48.5C in Mali. Deaths from extreme heat are poorly recorded in many countries but previous research suggests millions of people have died early over the past two decades. In Europe, where recording is better, heat-related deaths rose by 25% in the past decade.

The scientists warned of worse to come. If global temperature rises to 2C, repeats of April’s extreme heat will be expected every two to three years in the Philippines and every five years in Israel, Palestine and nearby countries. Hundreds of the world’s top climate scientists told the Guardian recently that they expected global inaction in ending fossil fuel burning to result in at least 2.5C of heating.

“From Gaza to Delhi to Manila, people suffered and died when April temperatures soared in Asia,” said Dr Friederike Otto at Imperial College London, part of the World Weather Attribution (WWA) study team. “The additional heat, driven by emissions from oil, gas and coal, is resulting in death for many people.”

Dr Carolina Pereira Marghidan, a heat risk consultant at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said: “The heat really compounded an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with displaced populations having limited to no access to food, water, healthcare, and generally living in overcrowded shelters which trap heat, or living outdoors.”

 

The WWA research examined three areas that suffered extreme heat in April. Global heating made temperatures 1.7C hotter in Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and 1C hotter in the Philippines, where 4,000 schools were closed and portable pools set up to help people cool down. The south Asian region examined encompassed India, where the temperature reached 46C, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

“Climate change is an absolute gamechanger when it comes to extreme heat,” said Otto. The study used weather data and climate models to compare the likelihood of heatwaves in today’s hotter climate and in a climate without human-caused heating. The researchers found that the current El Niño climate cycle, which raises global temperatures, had very little effect on the increased likelihood of the heatwaves.

“Asia contains some of the largest and fastest-growing cities in the world,” said Pereira Marghidan. “This rapid urbanisation has in many cases led to unplanned development, increased concrete across the cities, and extreme losses of green space in many cities.” She said outdoor workers such as farmers and street vendors and those in informal housing were particularly vulnerable and that the study showed the need to improve heatwave early warning and planning programmes.

Hundreds of attribution studies have shown how global heating is already supercharging extreme weather across the world. Dr Mariam Zachariah at Imperial College London, who was part of the study team, said: “Unless the world takes massive, unprecedented steps to reduce emissions and keep warming to 1.5C, extreme heat will lead to even greater suffering in Asia.”