NBC Investigates: California Looks towards Israel to solve her water woes

An el Nino year isn’t going to be enough to rescue California from four years of drought. Its been estimated that California  will need more than 11 trillions of water just to catch up. That translates into an inch a day for 13 years.

NBC’s investigative unit has determined that the water shortage will not be solved by rain alone.
They have traveled to Israel looking for ways to quench California’s thirst.



What NBC has learned is that it took a dramatic policy change for Israel to achieve water security. By treating water as a national priority,  Israel now produces 20 % more water than its population can use.  An aggressive water management  strategy that includes advanced water recycling,  efficient irrigation techniques,  rain catchment systems at schools and other buildings, and desalination plants, coupled with conservation and advanced leak detection, created a system that now can withstand years of drought

Currently, California lags behind Israel in terms of water use efficiency. A wet winter will not be enough to solve California's water woes.

Read it all  here.

BDS is all wet in California.

About two-thirds of California is facing “extreme” or “exceptional” drought with  this years' cumulative rainfall at an historically low level. In troubled times like this, California water authorities have turned to the world's expert on water issues-  Israel.   In Israel, desalination provides about one-quarter of the country’s water supply. 75 percent of the country’s sewage is reclaimed, the highest percentage in the world, and over 50 percent of water used in agriculture comes from treated sewage.

An Israeli company is currently involved in building what is expected to be America's largest seawater desalination plant    The $922 million plant is being developed by Israel's IDE Technologies working alongside a local company,  Poseidon Resources Corp. By its completion in 2016,  the plant in Carlsbad, California will be able to provide 50 million gallons of potable water a day. 15 additional plants have been proposed. Ultimately, desalinated water is expecting to provide about 10 percent of the county’s supply.


From the Bloomberg news:

Six decades of providing water in a country that’s 60 percent desert have made Israel a technological leader in the field, a model that points the way for drought-stricken California. 

Desalination of sea water, reuse of treated sewage for agriculture, software creating an early-warning system for leaks, computerized drip irrigation and careful accounting of every drop have become the norm in Israel, the world’s 40th biggest economy.
“This is the one supply that San Diego County is investing in that is truly drought-proof,” said Poseidon senior VP Peter MacLaggan. "It does cost more, but it has some reliability benefits that are very important to the regional economy.”

Avraham Tenne, head of the Desalination Division at Israel’s Water Authority offers this advice to drought weary Californians:

In the meantime, Californians should learn to conserve water, Tenne said. Raising prices, education to reduce waste, and cutting back on grassy areas are some of the methods that Israel has used to cut back on consumption, which is currently about 90 cubic meters per year per person, compared with 170 in California. 

“We do a lot of things, not just desalination,” Tenne said. “These are all things that California can do.”