According to National Geographic, the world is 71% water but only 1.2% of it is fresh water accessible for human use. United Nations believe that water below 1,000 cubic meters per person is water poverty.
However, not all can have the same accessibility to water. According to Forbes, Israel has natural freshwater recourses of only 265 cubic meters per person. To address this issue, Israel chose to recycle 90% of its water.
Mekorot is Israel’s government-owned national water company responsible for everything around water in the country. Israel covers its 85% of annual municipal and industrial water consumption from water desalination plants. It uses reverse osmosis technology with a membrane filtration process that blocks salt and lets water flow through it.
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Water treatment process
Reverse osmosis technology requires much less energy compared to other desalination methods. After desalination, water reaches homes, commercial zones, and industries. Once the water is used in metropolitan cities, they redirect it towards water treatment plants owned by Mekorot, Aqwise, and Atlantium.
Israel’s technology treats water with natural biological filtration, aquifer water treatment plants, and ultraviolet water treatment technologies. The technology treats almost 90% of used water and redirects it to irrigation pipelines to irrigate the drier areas of the country.
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Then comes the task of efficient water supply to agricultural lands, and they do it through a highly supervised pipeline system by Mekorot. To get the highest possible yield from every drop of water, an Israeli company named Netafim uses a drip irrigation system. They worked on precision irrigation with a controlled input, reducing costs while ensuring higher crop yield.
Despite the water shortage, Israel has made tremendous technological strides to build a comprehensive water system. By recycling 90% of their water, they don’t only solve the issue of water scarcity; they also create a sustainable water solution.
YouTube: Israeli water technologies: Making every drop count
Photo credit: The feature image has been taken by Shai Pal.
