[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 3 (Friday, January 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S572-S573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         PERES ON DESALINATION

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I will be reintroducing the 
desalination research bill, which I have introduced in two previous 
Congresses. It has passed the Senate twice. Unfortunately, it got 
caught up in the last-minute, partisan wrangling that had nothing to do 
with the desalination bill, and it did not pass.
  The need for it becomes more and more clear every day.
  Recently, I had the chance to read responses of Israeli Foreign 
Minister Simon Peres to questions at the National Press Club Forum on 
October 4.
  In response to a question by Jim Anderson of the German Press Agency, 
Foreign Minister Peres said: ``If you want to save your children from 
poverty, pay attention to the water. The rivers do not follow the 
frontiers and the rain doesn't go through the customs.''
  Then, in response to another question from a reporter, whose name I 
do 
[[Page S573]] not have, he said: ``There are projects that cannot be 
postponed. For example, the production of water, which is a must in 
order to satisfy basic needs of--(inaudible)--and it must be done on a 
regional basis.''
  He talks about the need for supplying water for drinking, for 
industrial purposes, and for agricultural purposes and the need for 
desalination. The unfortunate reality is that desalination research has 
been minimal in recent years. When John F. Kennedy was President of the 
United States, he pushed it, but since that time, desalination research 
has been almost on hold. It is critical that we move ahead, and the 
Middle East is just one area where that is evident.


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