The Health And Economic Burden of Desalination-Related Magnesium Deficiency

This research was generously supported by Yad Hanadiv

The prolonged water crisis that Israel suffered from for decades has been curbed thanks to desalination plants, but a side effect of that solution has created an unexpected health problem — a magnesium deficiency.

A new study by the Taub Center, conducted by researchers from the Taub Center Research and Policy Initiative for Environment and Health — Maya Sadeh, Prof. Itamar Grotto, Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, and Prof. Alex Weinreb — examined the health and economic impacts of magnesium deficiency, a mineral critical to human health. The study found that this deficiency increases the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and ischemic stroke. Before the desalination era, natural water provided 10%–20% of magnesium intake in Israel, but in desalinated water — now comprising the water supplied to about 70% of Israel’s households — there is no magnesium at all.

The good news is that this extra burden of disease can be avoided: by adding magnesium back into desalinated water, it is possible to reduce illness rates and save the healthcare system hundreds of millions of shekels. The expected annual savings in direct healthcare expenses from preventing type 2 diabetes and ischemic stroke, resulting from increasing magnesium intake by 50 mg per day, range from NIS 83 to 188 million in 2025 and between NIS 110 to 253 million in 2040. According to a Ministry of Health report, adding magnesium to water would cost about NIS 37 million annually.