Experts make watery inroads

REBECA KUROPATWA

The second Manitoba Israel Water Symposium was held in Israel last month, to follow up on the Canadian Department of Water Stewardship and Jewish National Fund (JNF) Prairie Region meeting held in Canada in August 2008. So far, the Manitoba-Israel collaboration has resulted in four successful initiatives – the 2008 Manitoba-Israel Water Experts Symposium, a scholarship for international water studies, joint Manitoba-Israel research projects and the 2010 Manitoba-Israel Water Experts Symposium.

The purpose of the latest conference, co-led by Manitoban Minister for Water Stewardship Christine Melnick, was for experts from two regions of the world to learn from one another. Israel, as an area that is comparatively “water poor,” has managed to develop and sustain a dynamic and vital society – an example from which Manitoba water experts hope to learn.

The late president of JNF Manitoba, Graham Dickson, was responsible for getting this dialogue underway, maintaining a relationship with senior officials in Manitoba’s provincial government, and the relationship between KKL (Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael)-JNF and the Manitoba government developed.

“Although Manitoba isn’t experiencing a water shortage like Israel, both places face some of the same challenges,” JNF Prairie Region president Mel Lazareck pointed out.

Manitoba has 110,000 lakes. Israel has two, one of which is, quite literally, “dead,” and the 23,750-square-kilometre Lake Winnipeg is larger than the entire state of Israel.

“Manitoba has a lot to learn from Israel about water conservation issues,” said Melnick. One of the major threats to Lake Winnipeg, she said, is the excessive nitrogen, algae and phosphorus seepage. Another is farmland runoff that is greatly reducing the wetlands’ ability to filter water.

Manitoban doctor Gordon Goldsborough said, “We never gave thought to the possibility of using its waters [Lake Winnipeg] for drinking.” With the same salinity as the Sea of Galilee, “we have a resource that can be utilized using methods similar to those practised in Israel.

“This was the most wonderful experience of my life, owing in part to the scientists I met at the symposium and, in part, to the impression Israel left on me – a country where a person can stand in the same places where his forefathers stood 5,000 years ago. I’m returning home a different person.”

Israel Water Authority chief executive officer Prof. Uri Shani said the amount of water in recent years has been less than expected, and that the pattern is not expected to change for the Middle East as a whole.

“Water consumption for non-agricultural use is about 800 million cubic metres per annum and, by 2013, we should be purifying about 600 million cubic metres,” said Shani. “Water and its production are also becoming more expensive.”

What is needed, he said, is a change in attitude. “We no longer have a concept of water from nature for free. Citizens of Israel contributed significantly last year to the reduction of water consumption in the private sector ... still, after the present crisis, the water economy may never be the same again.”

According to Shalom Simhon, Israeli minister of agriculture and rural development, the Israeli government has put more money into treated waste water for crop irrigation and has limited fresh water to farmers, making it possible for the Israeli public to have access to drinkable water (even during the current drought).

“There’s great value in using recycled water for agriculture and the environment,” said Simhon. “The recycled water cost makes it attractive to the farmers.... Despite major cutbacks in water allocations, with several Israeli farmers ceasing their activities, agricultural production hasn’t decreased.”

In fact, agricultural production has increased. Simhon attributed this to “the innovative use of recycled water and the construction of hundreds of reservoirs, most of which work on tertiary quality purification and provide irrigation for agricultural areas throughout Israel.” He stressed that the advantage of using recycled water (which makes up 40 percent of Israel’s agricultural irrigation) is having regular, reliable quantities and quality.

Not only does Israel benefit from these methodologies, explained Israel’s National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau. “We share the same resources with our neighbors.... What happens to them affects what happens to us.

“Water is also a basis for understanding, like the peace agreement with Jordan. We’ve already delivered far more water than was originally stipulated in political agreements, despite our strained relations and despite them not preventing polluted water sources that flow into our territory. In Amman, water is distributed from a water tank twice a week. Here [in Israel], you can turn on a faucet – not because we have more wisdom, but because our lack of choice has led us to invest great effort in the management of water sources.”

Israel is a recognized world leader in managing, recycling and reusing scarce water resources. KKL-JNF remains at the forefront of innovative solutions to Israel’s water crisis, including building water reservoirs, and developing biological water technologies to purify wastewater for reuse and river restoration.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

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