{"id":31675,"date":"2019-01-18T03:49:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T11:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31675"},"modified":"2019-01-16T10:45:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:45:56","slug":"dealing-with-the-water-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/01\/18\/dealing-with-the-water-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with the water crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An experimental date palm orchard in the southern Arava Valley, where water consumption and response to salinity is monitored. Based on data measured in these lysimeters, local farmers are advised on recommended quantities of irrigation water daily. (photo from Zehava Yehuda)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up in Israel, I have been aware of the\nwater problem [since] quite early in my childhood,\u201d said Dr. Zehava Yehuda.\n\u201cWhen I graduated, however, the country was still relying mostly on rain. We\ncould still expect rain-blessed years, and the Sea of Galilee to overflow\noccasionally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two decades, however, only once\nhas there been a year with enough rain to allow for the opening of the Degania\nDam, which regulates water levels in the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret) and the\nlower Jordan River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yehuda spoke on Nov. 27 at a Winnipeg Friends\nof Israel event at the city\u2019s Temple Shalom. She recently moved to Winnipeg\nwith her family and is currently working at the local Jewish National Fund\noffice as program and communications coordinator, while searching for a\nresearch position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI graduated from the Hebrew University,\nfaculty of agriculture, department of soil and water, worked on iron uptake in\nplants, and did post-doctoral studies on phytoremediation of soils contaminated\nwith heavy metals,\u201d said Yehuda. \u201cPhytoremediation is the use of hyper-accumulator\nplants that tolerate and are able to absorb high concentrations of specific\nmetals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked as a lab manager and associate\nresearcher at the HU, and as a soil and water researcher at the Centre for\nAgricultural Water Use Efficiency Research, Southern Arava Research and\nDevelopment Experimental Station, Yotveta.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Yehuda, soil and water are\nfundamental resources affecting all forms of life, food security and ecosystem\nsustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli water authorities have been streamlined\nto funnel through one office to simplify management and five large-scale\ndesalination plants have been built, she said. Desalinated water now accounts\nfor about 85% of domestic urban water. However, the plants were built late in\nthe crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsrael is facing a five-year drought that is\ndepleting the country\u2019s most important bodies of water and deteriorating their\nquality,\u201d said Yehuda. \u201cIsrael had not foreseen a sequence of arid years like\nthis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cumulative deficit in Israel\u2019s renewable\nwater resources before the current rain season amounts to approximately two\nbillion cubic metres \u2013 an amount equal to the annual consumption of the entire\nstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many reasons for the current water\nsituation,\u201d she said. \u201cFirst, Israel is situated in an arid region, where 60%\nof the county is desert. Meanwhile, population growth and standard of living\nhave grown significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis not only has dramatically increased water\nconsumption, but it has also aggravated the load on the coastal aquifer, one of\nthe three major water resources in the country. Israel has also committed by\npeace treaties to transfer about 85 MCM [million cubic metres] to Jordan and\nthe Palestinians … and, in fact, it transfers much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of the water consumption in the world is\nused for irrigation. Israel has been recycling water for agriculture for\ndecades. About 90% of fresh water is reused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"photo
Water scientist Dr. Zehava Yehuda speaks at a Winnipeg Friends of Israel event Nov. 27. (photo from Zehava Yehuda)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the invention of drip irrigation in\nIsrael, efforts have been directed to improving drippers, irrigation regimes\nand understanding plants\u2019 actual water consumption to efficiently use water in\nagriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further to this, Israel focused on innovative\ntechnologies to turn an older, expensive desalination solution into a more\npractical one, by improving the membranes that remove the salt and reducing the\nenergy needed to run the plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs of today, about 40% of drinking water in\nIsrael is supplied as desalinated seawater, and this percentage is expected to\ngrow even more,\u201d said Yehuda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the membranes also strip the water of\nother essential nutrients, she said Israel\u2019s water authorities have been\nsupplementing the desalinated water with, for example, \u201cmagnesium, a mineral\ncritical for proper heart functioning, among other functions,\u201d but it is\nexpensive to do so and \u201c[a]dding it to all desalinated water would\nsignificantly raise its cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another concern with desalination is that the\nbrine (removed salt) is being returned to the sea, and the ecological\nimplications for the sea are not fully known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith all this desalinated water available,\nboth the population and the Israeli authorities wrongly assumed that Israel had\nsolved her water problems, and that saving water was no longer a necessity,\u201d\nsaid Yehuda. \u201cThe authorities have since changed their position back to the\nneed to save water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans have recently been approved to build more\ndesalination plants to better meet the growing need for water during the dry\nmonths and to redirect unused desalinated water during the winter months to the\nSea of Galilee; in a sense, using the lake as a reservoir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current crisis has led to the realization\nthat a comprehensive master plan for policy and for institutional and\noperational changes is required to stabilize the situation, and to improve\nIsrael\u2019s water balance with a long-term perspective,\u201d said Yehuda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite the fact that water pumping from the\nKinneret was massively reduced, I do not expect water levels to return to what\nthey were 15 years ago when Lake Kinneret \u2013 Israel\u2019s biggest fresh water source\n\u2013 and underground aquifers were full. Hopefully, resources will not continue to\ndeteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yehuda provided a rundown of the different\nwater-related experiments with which she has been involved, including an\nexperimental date palm orchard in the southern Arava Valley, where water\nconsumption and response to salinity is monitored. Based on the data collected,\nlocal farmers are advised on recommended quantities of irrigation water daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Event attendee Carina Blumgrund said, \u201cWe all\nknow that Israel is at the forefront of developing smart resources to irrigate,\nand that they had done drip systems and are always trying to research how to be\nproactive, like taking advantage of the heat to have off-season production and\nexport to Europe … but we don\u2019t really know about the details…. It was\nreally interesting hearing about current issues. I had no idea about water\nlevels\u2026. And I didn\u2019t know about the treaties, about sharing with neighbours.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An experimental date palm orchard in the southern Arava Valley, where water consumption and response to salinity is monitored. Based on data measured in these lysimeters, local farmers are advised on recommended quantities of irrigation water daily. (photo from Zehava Yehuda) \u201cGrowing up in Israel, I have been aware of the water problem [since] quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[1369,2845,3876],"class_list":["post-31675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-desalination","tag-environment","tag-water"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}