Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement to the media at the Sorek desalination plant that "the shutdown of desalination facilities was intended to protect them from contamination, and it is largely behind us. The water sector will return to full operation in the coming hours." He added: "The water turbidity was created as a result of algae that came our way. In order to overcome this, we increased pumping from the Sea of Galilee and worked to increase drilling. According to assessments, the algae came from the direction of the Nile region. This is a significant extreme event."