My Oh Mayim
Rethinking Water Usage in
a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey, but Little Water.
Ushavtem mayim b'sason. Draw water in joy. A
classic song danced to at every celebration bymillions
of Jews worldwide. When Jews sing and dance about water, we are praying that Israelwill have enough for the coming year. Currently
demand for water is high, and Israel's
fresh water resources are quickly drying up. But Israeli society today is working
hard to solve the region's water shortages before they become a crisis.
Developments are being made daily to conserve water in agriculture, industry
and home. There are initiatives to reduce water
consumption, reuse semi-dirty 'grey' water, and
rethink techniques to produce or collect water.
They fuse cutting-edge technology with ancient agricultural practices.
Reduce
Israel's most famous water saving
innovation is drip irrigation. Now in practice in most of the arid world, Israel's Netafim brand irrigation systems specialize in computer controlled
drip systems that nearly eliminate evaporation. By releasing small amounts of
water through holes in piping and by regulating the times of day you water,
nearly all water is absorbed by the soil.
In some communities, older
systems of water collection and storage are being used to solve the problems of
today, including a move back to terracing (the ancient technique of leveling
land to hold water) and planting native trees and crops which require less
water. Great examples of these ancient techniques include gardens such as Sataf near Jerusalem where ancient aqueducts and cisterns
are in use once again to water communal garden plots; Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava desert, where UN sponsored research is
being conducted to find low water and high salt tolerant crops (such as the Sereus cactus
fruit) using traditional indigenous plants for commercial growth in desert
regions; and in the work of JNF - KKL using traditional terracing and pool
creation techniques to restore forests
in the North and protect the desert in the South.
In Israeli homes, many
techniques are employed to reduce water
consumption, though many more could be implemented. Every toilet in Israel is
‘dual flush’ meaning that you have a choice as to how much water to use when
you flush the toilet, unlike in the United States where the vast majority of
toilets use a full gallon of water with every flush. Home appliances such as
dishwashers and washing machines, as in most of Europe,
are built to conserve water and energy with every load. These one time purchases combined with water conservation education in the
schools and media continue to go a long way in reducing
personal water consumption.
Reuse
One of the most promising
developments for Israel's
water future is the use of grey water for agriculture and home. Grey water is
water that is previously used but is still suitable for reuse in certain functions. For example, homes in a grey water
system would reuse shower water in the toilet
or to irrigate home gardens. Agriculturally, communities such as kibbutzim and
moshavim could use their combined grey water to irrigate ertain
crops (Israeli health code requires that ll crops
irrigated with grey water are grown off he ground. Therefore yes to dates, no
to melons). This system allows communities
living in areas with little water, such as the desert South,
to effectively double the amount of available water. This ancient technique of reusing water, combined with modern waste water
treatment and agricultural technologies combine
to create a powerful model that if used broadly could go a long way in reducing water consumption.
Rethink
While a portion of society
is busy finding ways to reduce water
consumption, other researchers are finding ways to create new fresh water. The
most popular current initiative is in desalination, removing salt and other
products from sea water to make it suitable for agricultural and domestic use.
Purification of sea water has been practiced on a small scale in Eilat since 1965, however the first large scale desalination
plant opened in Ashkelon in 2005, and now produces
about 5% of Israel's total water. While desalination is a step forward for
water in Israel,
it does have its detractors. The process is extremely energy intensive, with
most of the energy produced using non-renewable fossil fuel sources (primarily
natural gas and coal). So while desalination may be solving one environmental
challenge, this solution could be contributing to other problems such as climate change and air pollution.
As a Rabbi recently told
me, we live our lives walking backwards, meaning we make choices for the future
based on what we know from the past. Over the millennium on this small piece of
land, lack of water has caused many
civilizations to collapse. Fortunately, many others have flourished through
efficient use and distribution of water and effective desert agricultural
techniques. Using these experiences as a warning, and knowledge as a guide, Israel can
develop its water policies as a thriving modern society based on three thousand
years of history, on our ancient homeland. I look forward to seeing what they
come up with next.
