How Israel’s $1.5 Billion "Water Iron Dome" Was Shut Down | Grand Structures

Desalination provides up to 80% of Israel’s drinking water, turning the massive Mediterranean Sea into a reliable daily water source. To keep up with demand, engineers built Sorek 2 (Be'er Miriam), a $1.5 billion megaproject capable of processing 670 million liters of water every single day. In this documentary, we break down the extreme engineering of reverse osmosis at scale. Discover how 2.6-meter intake pipes were tunneled under the beach using hydraulic pipe jacking, how the plant uses steam direct-drive turbines to spin its high-pressure pumps without an electric motor, and the ingenious remineralization loop that recycles carbon dioxide. But despite this brilliant engineering, we also explore the system's Achilles' heel: how a simple bloom of microalgae in 2026 managed to shut down nearly the entire country's desalination grid. Subscribe to Grand Structures for deep dives into extreme civil engineering, architectural physics, and hidden megaprojects Chapters 0:00 — The Puzzle of the Cloudy Sea 0:50 — A Country That Drinks the Sea 2:45 — Reverse Osmosis (Squeezing the Ocean) 5:30 — The Missing Motor & Steam Direct Drive 8:15 — Pipe Jacking 2.6-Meter Tunnels 10:30 — Remineralization & The $1.5B Price Tag 12:15 — The Algae Threat (The Weakest Link) 14:00 — The Safety Shutdown & Next Time #israel #engineering #desalination #Sorek2 #waterinfrastructure #reverseosmosis #civilengineering #megaprojects #grandstructures