Arie Brish, Brewster McCracken, Kevin Wagner, Michael Ben-Eli, Michael Webber
spoke on Lessons from the Negev: Allaying Water Scarcity at the Austin Convention Center as part of the SXSW Eco festival . Tiny
Israel is the world’s leading water recycler- reusing nearly all of its grey
water. As we enter our fourth year of
drought, California ought to pay close attention.
From
the Program announcement:
Ambassador
Meir Shlomo, Ph.D., Consul General of Israel to the Southwest of the U.S., will
give opening remarks for this session. Impending water shortages affect not
just agriculture, but the comforts and lifestyles many Americans have become
accustomed to. Since its existence, Israel has found innovative ways to make
the most of its small water resources. Because Israel and Texas share similar
climatic conditions they face similar water challenges. As a result,
collaborative relationships and discussions are underway to address shared
water scarcity issues. These relationships coupled with evolving solutions can
serve as a basis for innovative approaches elsewhere. The panel will discuss
specific research, technologies and practices from several Israeli and Texas
based projects and companies, as well as entities such as Mekorot, Israel's
national water carrier. By considering new technologies, project based
experimentation, tax incentives, market based strategies, public-private
partnerships and philanthropy, a framework for enhancing collaboration and
providing solutions for water scarcity will emerge.
Israel is a desert country
suffering through a devastating drought. And it has so much water it’s
considering exporting the excess.
How
Israel went from being chronically water stressed to banking water surpluses
offers lessons for the United States and other drought-stricken regions of the
world.
“Israel
has been in drought since forever,” Arie Brish, a consultant to Israeli water
authorities, said at a presentation at the SXSW Eco conference on Monday.
“Today, most people in Israel, when they start their shower, there’s a pot to
collect water and they use that water to water plants at home. It’s showers to
flowers.”
The
country also uses drip irrigation to send water directly to the roots of crops
rather than spray water on the surface, where it evaporates. Nearly all the
country’s gray water—from dishwashers, washing machines, and toilets—is
recycled for irrigation.
(Texas,
in contrast, only drip-irrigates about 3 percent of its crops, according to
Kevin Wagner, associate director of the Texas Water Resource Institute, a
state-chartered organization.)
Conservation
may be ingrained in Israelis from childhood, but the construction of five
massive desalinization plants since 2008 has allowed the country to become
water-secure, according to Brish.
“Israel
is now talking about exporting water to Turkey,” he said.
2 comments:
Why do you describe this as "water-washing"?
Because acording to the anti-Israel cru, anything and everything Israel does for its own people or for the world is just a way to cover up its alleged "atrocities" to towards the Palestinians people. Having the most progressive policies in the region on LGBT rights? Thats "pink-washing". Ethiopian beauty queens, senators and doctors? "Brown-washing". Progressive environmental policies? "Green-washing". Efficient water policies? Why, thats just "water-washing", isn't it?
Or it could be a sarcasm-fail on my part.
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