Made in Israel: Water

more than half of this country's land is desert and we have a severe water shortage Moses led us to Israel a country that has no oil no water doctor to good soil and we had to make the best out of it thousands of years ago Moses had to strike a rock to get water in the desert well today Israelis are taking a slightly different approach using technology and creativity in Israel the main sources of drinking water are the Sea of Galilee and two underground aquifers if rainfall is short so is the nation's water supply in 1953 Israel started building the national water carrier a system of pipelines canals and reservoirs the carry water from the Sea of Galilee to the rest of Israel so we didn't have water okay we developed water technology one of the things that Israel's excelled in is taking what some people would see is risk factors or as curses and turning them into blessings from the time of Balaam the Jewish people have always been able to somehow turn the curse into a blessing the pipeline's were a good start but Israel's freshwater supply wasn't enough to support a growing country so Israeli started looking west to the Mediterranean for thousands of years the Mediterranean Sea was the center of the ancient world the crossroads between Europe Asia and Africa and now it's one of Israel's greatest natural resources Israel is desalinating so much of its drinking water the majority of our drinking waters origin will be the Mediterranean Sea by the end of next year today Israel produces 450 million cubic meters of drinkable water a day through a process called sea water reverse osmosis water can go from the ocean to the faucet in less than 90 minutes the Israeli technology is now used in more than 40 countries around the world and thanks to the Mediterranean Israel may soon have something that was once unthinkable a water surplus in this country we don't have much water except somehow by the end of this decade Israel is going to become a net water exporter just on today's news there was a item about how Israel is stepping up the export of water to Jordan in order to supply water for all the Syrian refugees who are fleeing into Jordan while Israel produces drinking water from the sea many farmers are getting water for their crops literally out of thin air ancient Israelites use stones to collect the dew every morning now an Israeli company is using plastic trays to do the same the trays were developed by Thalia technologies which means God's do in Hebrew every morning these trays channel to do straight into the roots of the plants they also prevent weeds from growing between the plants and reduce water usage by up to 50 percent Israeli farmers have always made good use of their water but it wasn't long before they realize that in order to survive they also needed to start reusing it today Israel recycles 80% of its waste water the closest competitor is Spain with 10% so we recycle more than eight times more water than any other country on the planet Israelis developed a way to purify wastewater using ultraviolet light this treated water is then used to irrigate crops if you use it for vegetables then you would like to clean it extend that you can almost drink it so it is treated to a very high degree today 60% of the water that is irrigating fields in Israel is produced water and not nature water and I'll give you an example of our farm here on the kibbutz we go jojoba and we use only sewage water only treated wastewater to irrigate our jojoba and this is done all over Israel Israel may be short on fresh water but the country's Negev desert is sitting on an underground ocean too salty to drink or desalinate so Israeli settlers found a new way to use it you cannot really fight nature nature will fight you back we found out after the years that is better to cooperate and to coordinate with what you've got you after gun is one of a growing number of Israelis who have left the ocean to go fishing in the desert they build fish farms using the warm salty water from underground it's ideal for raising saltwater fish like tilapia sea bass and barramundi the place here is working without chemicals without anything it's very healthy it's friendly for the environment and it's good for us in a matter of the pocket we are making good money and this is a by the bottom line at this kibbutz in the Negev desert even the fish waste is put to use every week the water in these tanks is replaced and pumped underground to irrigate the nearby olive grove the fish waste in the water makes an ideal natural fertilizer as you can see on the side the olives are growing around the farm ground the fish and our doing very well without any other chemicals only by the nutrients of the fish Israel is taken this idea to other countries struggling with water and food shortages we're taking African villages teaching them how to essentially build fish farms if you look at around Lake Victoria the Nile perch were dying and Israelis are now going in to teach the farmers how to grow them in ponds so that you can actually continue to eat the Nile perch over the years Israelis also found new ways to use less water and as always they started in the desert there's the story of the other one sometimes as 20 millimeters of rain annual fall very harsh climate and still thanks to drip irrigation this became the vegetable barn of Israel 65% of vegetable export out of Israel mainly to Europe is coming from the air over today even the driest parts of the desert are blooming with help from a process called drip irrigation the idea is older than the state of Israel itself when the first settlers came here young people came from the city and they wanted to be farmers and they came to kibbutz at serene and they faced many challenges arid land high salinity not enough water and there was even a time when they considered moving to another place but then been going on came who was a leader with a real vision and he said guys if you want to move it's okay but further south not back to the north and we stayed here and we continued and we did some experiment but still we were struggling then we met the guy who invented drip irrigation that guy was an engineer named simcha Blas he got the idea for drip irrigation after seeing a tree that was larger than the others around it after digging around the roots he found it was being watered by a leak in an underground pipe so this gave him the idea but he took him some news actually until a plastic was introduced to start and make experiments with ripples that will emit water in small blobs and this is basically bleep you Gatien blossom at the farmers of kibbutz hot serene and together they started a company called Netafim which means drops of water in Hebrew soon they boosted their crop yield by 50% and use 40% less water to do it the irrigation saves a lot of water producing more getting more yet not harming the environment for almost half a century the company has lived up to its slogan grow more with less not just in Israel but in 110 countries around the world from sugar cane fields in the Philippines to tea plantations in Tanzania you know India is now our number one country the results looking at the yield increase we're amazing 50% of the farmers got an increase in yield between 25 and 50 percent another 25 percent of the farmers got an increasing yield of up to 75 percent nanofy meeven designed a system that works solely on gravity for places like Peru where remote mountain farmers don't have electricity the plant doesn't know the difference the plane doesn't know that you don't have a twenty thousand dollar computer behind the dripper and it works beautifully everyone is talking about water scarcity 70% of the water that we have available in the world is used for agriculture now if we say only 15% in agriculture we can more than double the available water for drinking and sanitation in Hebrew we have a term which is called tikkun olam which is fixing the world and this is basically what regulation does this is my personal goal and challenge you

Channel: The 700 Club

Views: 995,390

Rating: 4.7453957 out of 5

Keywords: 2648187707001, work, desert, recycling, 700clubyoutube, desalination, drip irrigation, EZ24, Israel, conserves water, ingenuity, 700 Club, gordon robertson, clean water, cbn, HD720, featuredclip, erin zimmerman, life-or-death issue, 700Club, 700clubclips

Id: x7G9v6JdYwc

Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2013