For most of its existence Israeli agriculture has been known primarily for its drip water irrigation. Drip irrigation, is also known as trickle irrigation or micro irrigation an irrigation method that minimizes the use of water and fertilizer, by allowing water to seep slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters.
The concept of drip irrigation has been well known for decades. After WWII plastics technology took off rapidly and drip irrigation became economically practical. The first such work was with micro-tubes and took place in England and France in greenhouses. In the 1960s, a Mr.Symcha Blass an employee of a British Water Agency, immigrated to Israel. There is a "fable" (which could be true, because it came from his own mouth) about Symcha Blass sitting next to a tree, which was near a leaking faucet and Eureka! But there is also no doubt that he knew about the British greenhouse application of micro-tubes. With the desperate water shortage in Israel, he decided that this technology would be useful for growing crops in the field as well as in greenhouses. The microtube was first wrapped around the feeding tube to keep it out of the way to prevent damage. This was followed by a molded coupling, with the spiral molded in. In turn this developed into the ubiquitous two piece in-line dripper described in Blass' patent. Blass did his work at Kibbutz Hatzerim and formed the basis of the Netafim, irrigation enterprise, whose annual exports today exceed $350m.
However, the situation has changed drastically in the past few years.
The world's largest desalination plant, located along Israel's southern Mediterranean coast, became operational in 2005. The water treatment plant will provide 100 million cubic meters (mcm) of desalinated water
per year.
The plant provides about 15 percent of the total household water in Israel when it's fully operational. The consortium comprises Israel's IDE Technologies, Elran Infrastructures, and France's Veolia Water. The total cost of the project is $250 million.
"The plant in Ashkelon is the largest of its type in the world and will boost Israel's position as world leader in the field of desalination," said Gustavo Kronenberg, chief executive of VID Desalination.
IDE Technologies Ltd. has signed a $119 million contract to build a seawater desalination facility in China for the Beijing power station, 200 kilometers northeast of Beijing. The power station is owned by Tianjin Ambest International Logistics Co. Ltd.
It is estimated that Israel's water industry was valued at $1.4 billion in 2008.
Israel has long sought solutions to its water shortages exacerbated by recent low rainfall and negotiations with Palestine and Syria. The country has two desalination plants operating in central and southern Israel that jointly produce 130 million cubic meters of water a year. A third desalination plant with the capacity to produce 100 million cubic-meters of water is scheduled to be commissioned in the city of Hadera later this year.
More desalination plants are on the horizon. Recently, Israel issued a tender for its largest-ever seawater desalination plant capable of producing 150 million cubic meters (39.6 billion U.S. gallons) of water a year (see Israel plans largest desal plant in $513M deal). Israeli national water company Mekorot has plans to build a 100 million cubic meter desalination plant in the southern town of Ashkelon. Mekorot supplies 80 percent of Israel's drinking water and 70 percent of its entire water supply (see Israel's
Israel to export $2.5b. in water technologies by 2011
National group says Israel continues to push advanced water projects while governments elsewhere have ceased investing in the sector.
Israel is set to dominate the advanced water technology sector by 2011, according to a national group that's predicting $2.5 billion in exports of water technologies that year
It is more than 30 years ago when we visited Eilat, Israel's southernmost seaport and discovered that part of the city's water needs were supplied by a desalination plant. In looking somewhat further we discovered that an Israeli engineer pioneered the Zarchin process for desalination. More than 40 plants were sold worldwide but, at that time, not a single one was sold for use in Israel.