By: Eze Diamant
According to the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF), “some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year.” Meanwhile, Israel has been innovating and creating with water; irrigation, purification and conservation of water are the cutting edge of the global water game.
Israel’s innovations in irrigation are primarily focused in drip irrigation. Flood irrigation, a common alternative, is comparatively ineffective, since it first floods the roots with water (which stresses the plant) and then leaves it dry for an extended period (which stresses the plant in another manner). Drip irrigation fixes this by offering a consistent and manageable flow of water, which the plant can adapt to. On average, this conserves a minimum of 40% of water and produces crops which are on average 40% larger. This is great, because a lower water usage helps the environment and may also lower the price of food.
Israel’s purification and reuse of sewage water is also groundbreaking. By using a triple-filtration technology, which uses natural sand filters in the Negev at the Shafdan facility, they are able to recycle over 70% of this water! This means that there is a consistent, clean source of water which is usable for agriculture, the country’s largest water user.
With the Israeli government advertising to “save every drop” of water coupled with water conservation taught to toddlers in school, this breeds a cultural climate that treats water as precious and uses it sparingly. As a byproduct of this, there are always innovations which lower water usage, bringing about things like the double-flush toilet, where there are 2 separate buttons for varying pressures. Due to this, millions of gallons can now potentially be saved worldwide. Because of Israel’s awareness of water usage and conservation, they have been pioneers on the global stage for companies which help facilitate small and large projects to have more sustainable cities and food supply worldwide.
An Israeli governmental organization called Netafim is a worldwide leader in the irrigation industry, encouraging both Israeli farmers and farmers abroad to switch to drip irrigation from the comparatively wasteful flood irrigation, for reasons stated above. They have operations to maximize crops of avocados, sugarcane, and corn worldwide, ranging from Croatia to Brazil to Senegal to China, and the list goes on. Overall, they are pioneers in creating thriving crops in areas where food security, cost, or quality are difficult to keep up to par, and they’re benefiting the world one crop at a time.
Another Israeli organization, privately-funded IDE, is helping governments establish both large and small sea and brackish water desalination facilities, industrial water treatment and water reuse plants based on the most advanced technologies available to us at this time. They are currently putting their tech into place all over the world; they have established a presence in Carlsbad, California to lessen the water problems there; they are developing a facility in Tianjin, which is China’s largest desalination plant; they also have multiple bases in Israel to desalinate water. IDE also delves into energy maximization, oil and gas recovery, and many other incredible projects. To think, this was all started with the saying “Save Every Drop” and it has since blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry which saves governments billions of dollars worldwide.
Overall, the combination of the entrepreneurial mindset in Israel, the lack of water, and the creativity of the people (as well as the government embracing change) has led Israel to be on the forefront of water technologies in the world, and they are now creating valuable desalination facilities and spreading their extensive knowledge of water reclamation and conservation for water’s benefit. The next time you drink a glass of water, think of Israel, and how someday, you might just be drinking safe and clean desalinated water due to Israeli technologies.
