Water.

 

      The Shafdan water treatment facility. 

By way of introducing this week’s topic I’ll begin with some apt advice from the Book of Proverbs: -

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth.”

Proverbs. 24:17

 

When I quoted this text several years ago, someone countered humorously adding a Yiddish saying of undetermined origin -" Rejoice not when your enemy falls, but don't rush to pick him up."                                                                                                         

Napoleon was more brutal - "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

Iran is determined to destroy Israel, however its efforts to “wipe the Jewish state off the map” have been ineffective so far. The money wasted trying to destroy Israel could have been used to improve the wellbeing of the long- suffering Iranian people.

Last summer was the hottest on record, bringing devastating impacts to many global communities. Iran was one of many nations that faced both debilitating heat and the subsequent water stress.

While Iran’s problems received significant media attention this year, water scarcity in the country is not a new problem. For decades, corruption and poor planning have plagued Iranian water policy, with impacts falling upon its increasingly disadvantaged provinces and, ultimately, on its ethnic minorities. Poor water policy also has contributed to an increasing number of cross-border disputes.

These issues that have plagued Iranian water policy throughout its history will continue to pose challenges to its population and exacerbate its national security concerns as domestic and international tensions deepen and the climate crisis progresses.

Furthermore, analysis of the Iranian Ministry of Energy and Meteorology’s data from the past five decades indicates a concerning downward trend in rainfall patterns, portending dire consequences for Iran’s future across various sectors, including population distribution.

Iran’s predicament is further exacerbated by its classification as one of the top three nations experiencing accelerated depletion of fresh water, as outlined in a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature. Unsustainable irrigation practices and the compounding effects of climate change have precipitated a widespread decline in aquifer levels, signalling a distressing trajectory for the nation’s water security.

The convergence of climate-induced rainfall shortages, systemic mismanagement of water resources, and a lack of accountability in policy implementation has precipitated a nationwide ecological crisis. This crisis has not only led to heightened water tensions in various regions but has also sparked a wave of regional protests, often met with harsh repression by military and security forces of the regime.

As Iran grapples with the unfolding water crisis, urgent and decisive action is imperative to mitigate the impending ecological catastrophe and safeguard the nation’s vital water resources for future generations.

At this juncture I think it’s appropriate to compare Iran’s water related crises to those of its self designated arch-enemy Israel.

How did Israel, a country that is more than half desert, frequently hit with drought, and historically cursed by chronic water shortages, become a nation that now produces 20 percent more water than it needs?

Water demand from Israel’s rapidly growing population outpaced the supply and natural replenishment of potable water so much that by 2015, the gap between demand and available natural water supplies reached 1 billion cubic metres (BCM).

Recovering from such a scenario seems highly unlikely, yet Israel managed it by pioneering an unprecedented wealth of technological innovation and infrastructure to prevent the country from drying up.

Nationwide turnaround stories like this are in short supply these days given the momentum of global warming and the world’s unwillingness to scale the solutions needed to thwart its irreversible effects in time.

Some 4 billion people –– two-thirds of the global population — now experience extreme water scarcity for at least one month out of each year due to the climate crisis.

But thanks to its national prioritisation and seven decades of relentless determination, Israel has become a lifeline and source of hope for other water-deprived countries.

Israeli organisations like MASHAV, KKL-JNF, EcoPeace Middle East and the Arava Institute actively disseminate Israel’s expertise, technologies and policy strategies with neighbouring and distant communities suffering from endemic water crises.

Israel’s leadership in sustainable water management began with finding solutions to the country’s first and foremost problem: the uneven distribution of freshwater throughout the country.

The problem became acute after Israel declared its independence in 1948 as waves of new immigrants lacked sufficient water for home consumption and agriculture.

To supply the growing demand, Israel’s national water company Mekorot, began constructing the National Water Carrier.

This water transportation network was designed to pump water from the northern Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and transfer water from existing regional water projects to central and southern Israel.

But upon its completion in 1964, 80% of the water transported by this system was allocated for agriculture. By 1965, the year following the completion of the National Water Carrier, a novel drip irrigation system was devised, perfected and marketed commercially by “Netafim” in Israel and abroad.

Today, drip irrigation waters 75% of Israel’s crops, but only 5% of farms worldwide currently utilise the technology due to financial barriers.

Despite the transportive advantages of the National Water Carrier and the conservation benefits of drip irrigation, both innovations drew water solely from Israel’s very limited freshwater sources, which were being pumped faster than they could be replenished naturally.

Plus, the share of freshwater designated for agriculture still vastly outweighed the amount allocated for household usage. By the mid-80s, agriculture was using 72% of Israel’s safe water supply.

Israeli engineers realised it’s not just about conserving available freshwater but also taking advantage of water sources previously considered unusable, such as treated municipal wastewater and stormwater.

In 1985, Israel began sending treated, recycled wastewater through its National Water Carrier to agricultural communities, greatly reducing the gap between consumer demand and available water.

This is because wastewater from our sinks, showers and toilets is not dependent upon climate fluctuations or seasonal weather patterns, but rather on population growth and living standards.

By 2015, Israel had managed to treat and recycle 86% of its wastewater for agricultural operations, leading the world in wastewater reclamation. Second to Israel in that same year was Spain, recycling just 17% of its wastewater.

Utilising Israel’s tertiary treatment processes, recycled wastewater is cleaned to near drinking-quality levels before reaching crops to avoid contamination.

The goal is to recycle 95% of wastewater for agriculture by 2025, leaving that much more fresh drinking water for the communities that need it.

With a daily influx of roughly 470,000 cubic metres of raw sewage, the Shafdan treatment facility, Israel’s largest wastewater treatment facility, provides about 140 million cubic metres (MCM) of clean, reclaimed water to Negev desert farms for irrigation annually. In fact, more than 60% of agriculture in the Negev is supplied by Shafdan alone.

In 2002 the government approved the construction of new reverse osmosis plants along its Mediterranean coast. The plan was to build 5 new water-producing plants as fast as possible. The first two plants were completed and operating by 2008. By 2013 a total of four plants were turning seawater into freshwater with the fifth (but certainly not final) Ashdod plant completed in 2015.

This array of 5 drought-inspired plants wasn’t the first time desalination plants were employed in this country. Israel began employing commercial desalination plants along the Dead Sea in the 1970s, and the first reverse osmosis desalination plant opened on the Red Sea in 1970, decades before the worst droughts plagued the country. But the decision to deploy a new array of 5 plants along the Mediterranean meant the government was putting its trust in desalination technology to pull Israel out of drought affliction and toward a future without water scarcity. In an arid country bordering an abundant water source like the Mediterranean, desalination seemed to be a great fit.

Today, Israel gets a whopping 55 percent of its domestic water supply from desalinated seawater and brackish groundwater. Producing 150 million cubic metres annually, Israel’s Sorek desalination plant is the largest in the world! It alone provides 20 percent of the potable water that Israel consumes. In addition, the ‘host” of 5 large desalination plants along the Mediterranean Sea and close to 30 smaller desalination plants filter brackish groundwater throughout the country, mostly in the Negev.

To supplement (and even partially replace) the National Water Carrier, the government has begun building a new National Water System. The new system uses pipelines to connect the new desalination plants with consumers, making it possible for a large sector of Israel’s population to get its water supply from desalination technology.

While Israel’s desalination technology already produces 600 million cubic metres of water a year, more desalination plants are on the way. Given its current trajectory, experts expect that desalination plants will provide 70 percent of Israel’s drinking water by 2050. As the country moves forward as a global leader in recycled wastewater treatment and reverse-osmosis desalination, the future implications of its success are threefold.

First, Israel will need to rethink its approach to water policy. The future of the country is now characterised by water production and potential water abundance, making the new challenge a question of what do with a water surplus. Israel now finds itself considering opportunities to export water.

Second, Israel has now stepped onto the world stage as a leader in water production. The country is the first to really pioneer the concept of the developed world embracing desalination as a solution to water scarcity. Israel now serves as a model for other developed countries pursuing desalination. In fact, as part of the effort to provide drought relief in California, an Israeli company recently built the largest desalination plant in the western hemisphere just north of San Diego.

Finally, Israel’s success with desalination has introduced a potential path to peace in a region historically plagued with harsh geography and political strife in response to water shortage. Removing water scarcity as a source of conflict in the Middle East would be a total game-changer, and Israel’s steps toward doing so are certainly something to applaud.

Thanks to reverse osmosis desalination technology, one of the driest countries on Earth now produces more freshwater than it needs. Today, the Sea of Galilee is fuller, Israeli farms are flourishing, and the Negev desert communities have access to enough freshwater—a sharp contrast to their status following a decade of drought in the early 2000s. Israel now has years of desalination experience under its belt and proves a practical example of how other water-scarce regions of the world can successfully invest in desalination to combat water scarcity.

Consideration of other Israeli water production initiatives, notably the water-from-air tech company “Watergen” deserve more than a passing mention, but not now.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Beni,

 

22^nd of February, 2024.