{"id":1974,"date":"2024-05-22T11:47:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T09:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossigeno.it\/acqua-nel-deserto\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T09:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T07:58:18","slug":"water-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ossigeno.it\/en\/water-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Water in the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” font_size=”22″ color=”#000000″]Water disinfection and recycling, desalination, drip irrigation: Israel, a nation whose morphology is 60% desert, has been able to make a virtue out of necessity, becoming a pioneer in the implementation of cutting-edge technologies to deal with the global problem of water scarcity. The report by Patricia Golan, member of the Israeli innovation community DeserTech.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text italic=”true” css=”.vc_custom_1739805427220{margin-top: 20px !important;}”]di Patricia Golan \u2013 DeserTech Community[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″]
from<\/span> Ossigeno 11<\/a><\/div>[vc_single_image image=”1519″][vc_column_text css=”” font_size=”22″]Topics<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text]

companies<\/a><\/h2><\/div>

soil<\/a><\/h2><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text css=”” font_size=”18″]Water disinfection and recycling, desalination, drip irrigation:
\nIsrael shares its expertise internationally<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00abNecessity is the mother of invention\u00bb is a well-known, sometimes overused proverbial saying. But it seems fitting as a shorthand explanation of how a country that is 60% desert, that has historically suffered from perpetual water shortages and is experiencing a rapidly expanding population, has managed to produce 20% more water than it needs.<\/p>\n

Only a few years ago, the growing gap between demand and available water supplies was becoming the national nightmare. Yet, Israel managed to avoid that parched future through pioneering technological innovation and infrastructure. If a need is the driving force for most new inventions, as the saying has it, then as a very small country with not enough water, a finite resource, there was a challenge that had to be met.<\/p>\n

Some of the major inventions, innovations and patents come from Israel\u2019s southern Negev region, a\u00a0living laboratory of arid lands science and technology. Promoting and shepherding the development\u00a0of technologies dealing with desert-related challenges is DeserTech<\/em>, one the newest innovation\u00a0communities. The community was founded by the Merage Foundation Israel<\/em>, a catalytic foundation\u00a0aiming to promote economic growth in the Negev region, relying on the territory’s competitive advantages.\u00a0The Merage Foundation Israel saw the potential of creating an innovation cluster in the Negev, and\u00a0joined forces with the Israel Innovation Institute<\/em>, Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and\u00a0Ben-Gurion University of the Negev<\/em>. Together they initiated the DeserTech Community. DeserTech is\u00a0located in Be\u2019er-Sheva, the so-called \u201ccapital of the Negev\u201d. It promotes the development, adaptation\u00a0and commercialization of technologies that enable sustainable living in arid climates, particularly in\u00a0the areas most affected by water scarcity. It runs international seminars for the development and\u00a0adaptation of desert-related technologies and creates hundreds of business opportunities for Israeli\u00a0startups in the fields of water, agriculture, renewable energy and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The presence of thousands of startups and more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the world, makes Israel a natural hub for innovation. How to support and bring together all the diverse companies, academic centers and startups that address global needs is a challenge being met by the non-profit Israel Innovation Institute. The mission of this do-tank is to establish innovation communities in which entrepreneurs and startups in fields including healthcare, agriculture, transportation and climate change can share mutual challenges and solutions. The Institute helps the communities find resources, make connections and \u2013 vitally \u2013 exchange knowledge with industry players: how to match needs with solutions and create business opportunities. In addition, the Israel Innovation Institute accompanies and supports international organizations that join the Israeli innovation ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u00abIsrael\u2019s prime minister David Ben-Gurion was clever enough to understand that 60% of the country is desert, and if we don\u2019t manage to live in this desert we will not survive\u00bb, states Prof. Amit Gross, director of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev\u2019s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research<\/em>. \u00abWater issues have been a major concern since the beginning. We had to find solutions to water scarcity, where in other countries it wasn\u2019t an issue. So, we have the advantage of several years during which we dealt with these concerns\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\u00abIsrael is a kind of an isolated island, and when we have problems we have to find our own solutions\u00bb, comments Steve Elbaz, vice-president of Watergen, a company which invented a technology creating \u2013 literally \u2013 drinking water out of air. Like Iron Dome, the mobile air defense system developed by Israeli defense industries, says Elbaz, \u00abwhen you need a bubble of protection, you build it; when you don\u2019t have water, you create it\u00bb. Watergen\u2019s technology sucks out the moisture from the air using solar energy, creating clean drinking water on the spot. Water-from-air units are currently being used in 65 countries, including the Gaza Strip and rural villages in Central Africa.<\/p>\n

Watergen is one of many Israeli companies, startups and academic research centers which have developed and are building successful technologies to deal with the existential problem of lack of water. Most, if not all, of the solutions have been developed in Israel\u2019s south, an area now famous for innovative water conservation measures. Perhaps the oldest, and one of Israel\u2019s greatest innovations, is the drip irrigation system invented and developed in the mid-1960s in Kibbutz Hatzerim, in the arid south. The then revolutionary method slowly applies water directly to the roots of crops through a network of tubes, valves and drippers. Today the multinational drip irrigation company Netafim, founded by the Kibbutz, operates in 150 countries, and drip irrigation waters 75% of Israel\u2019s crops.<\/p>\n

Oddly, perhaps, for a country on the sea, Israel came fairly late to large-scale seawater desalination. Israel only started implementation in 2005, though the development of the practical use of reverse osmosis which revolutionized water desalination. It was developed by Sidney Loeb at Ben-Gurion University\u2019s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research.
\nTraditionally, desalination is an expensive undertaking, but Israeli advances have made it much cheaper today, allowing it to expand its desalination program. There are now five large operational facilities in Israel with two more in development, allowing it to export water to other countries facing shortages, such as Jordan.<\/p>\n

For decades Israel has been famous for treating wastewater. Today it uses about 90% of its wastewater for agriculture, more than any other country. But because the system includes toilet water, beginning in 2003 researchers at the Zuckerberg Institute looked for a way of efficiently using of what is called greywater, that is wastewater generated in households or office buildings (sinks, bathtubs, washing machines etc.) but without toilet wastewater. \u00abWe realized that if you separate the domestic sources, and even exclude the kitchen stream, then the initial wastewater quality is much higher\u00bb, explains Prof. Gross of the Zuckerberg Institute. The system, he says, had to be economically feasible and risk-free health-wise. The team set up what proved to be a successful experiment which ultimately led to the creation of guidelines for implementation.
\nThough today the greywater system is employed by country clubs and other locations in Israel, the Health Ministry has not approved its wide-spread use in the country. \u00abIt\u2019s a bit strange that we\u2019re the leader in the world in terms of research on greywater, but in terms of practice Israeli research is being applied in many other countries, including Australia\u00bb, states Gross.<\/p>\n

Almost all countries have wastewater treatment plants. But even the most modern plants must deal with the serious problem of levels of pollution that are higher than the system can manage. The Israeli company Kando <\/em>has developed a highly accurate technology \u2013 a wastewater intelligence platform<\/em> \u2013 that monitors incoming raw materials, identifying the sources of dangerous pollution, thus making the process more efficient.
\n\u00abSometimes the quality of the incoming wastewater is so poor that the processes can\u2019t cope. Often the plants have to shut down because there is no way to treat the wastewater; so it\u2019s just dumped into the sea or river, because there are no other options\u00bb, explains Jenny Gelman, head of Kando\u2019s marketing and communications division. \u00abThat cycle can sometimes happen a few times a week\u00bb. The Kando technology is a combination of hardware and software that gathers and analyzes data from different sources, and eventually alerts management so the situation can be handled in real time. \u00abThe Kando solution gives plants the ability to detect events in the network, track the source and make an impact on the wastewater facility\u00bb, states Gelman.
\nAnother revolutionary and practical use of the wastewater intelligence platform is epidemiological, which came to light during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before people showed signs of being sick, it turned out that the virus manifested itself in the wastewater. In a joint project with Ben-Gurion University, the company developed a technique to improve screening of wastewater for variants of Covid, that gives health authorities advance warning of a potential outbreak. The application has already been adopted by Israel\u2019s Health Ministry. According to Kando CEO Ari Goldfarb the company is helping governments around the world analyze their water to guide public health policy, including an early warning system on airplane toilets. The company has also detected sudden upticks of the polio virus in Israel, which is helping the government direct resources to unvaccinated neighborhoods.
\nAt least two billion people around the world use water from contaminated sources, particularly in the developing world, where access to clean water resources is often unaffordable or inaccessible. Water is taken from community taps or wells, sometimes even directly from rivers where the quality is often q uestionable. Contaminated water is even a problem in Israel, in the unrecognized rural enclaves in the south.<\/p>\n

One Israeli startup also dealing with the world-wide challenge of safe drinking water is a branch of Tel Aviv University\u2019s Water Energy Lab<\/em>, in the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The lab, headed by Prof. Hadas Mamane, has developed a technology that uses LED lighting and solar energy to disinfect water. The laptop-sized device, called SoLED<\/em>, operates without any chemicals or electricity to kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses from water, making it less costly and easier to use than existing solutions in remote areas. The SoLED prototype is now being tested in rural India. The ultimate goal, of course, is to produce a version that can be manufactured for mass distribution.<\/p>\n

As a result of the climate crisis, billions of people in the world today \u2013 it is estimated one person in every four \u2013 experience extreme water scarcity, for at least part of the year. As the impact of climate change increases, water scarcity will affect nearly half the world\u2019s population by 2025, according to expert estimates. This is not only true of poor countries: large parts of the U.S. are running out of water too as a result of global warming.
\nOn both the private and academic level, Israel is sharing its expertise, technologies and policy strategies with other water-deprived countries. According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, while Israel is located in the most water-scarce region of the world, it \u00abis leading the way in developing innovative technologies for this sector. From water recycling to desalination and drip irrigation, Israeli companies are at the forefront of marrying ingenuity and science to ameliorate this global problem\u00bb.<\/p>\n

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\u00abIl primo ministro israeliano David Ben-Gurion \u00e8 stato cos\u00ec abile da capire che, essendo noi una nazione desertica per il 60%, se non riusciamo a resistere al deserto non sopravviveremo\u00bb, afferma il Prof. Amit Gross, direttore dell’Istituto Zuckerberg per le Ricerche sull’Acqua <\/em>dell\u2019Universit\u00e0 Ben Gurion del Negev. \u00abLe tematiche idriche sono state la nostra principale occupazione sin dall’inizio. Abbiamo dovuto trovare soluzioni alla scarsit\u00e0 d’acqua, mentre in altri stati ci\u00f2 non ha mai rappresentato un problema. Di conseguenza, custodiamo un vantaggio di diversi anni durante i quali abbiamo affrontato questo tipo di istanze\u00bb.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00c8 come se Israele fosse un\u2019isola a s\u00e9 stante, e quando ci sono problemi dobbiamo autonomamente trovare soluzioni\u00bb, commenta Steve Elbaz, vicepresidente di Watergen<\/em>, azienda che ha messo a punto un procedimento capace di creare \u2013 letteralmente \u2013 acqua potabile dall’aria. Come per Iron Dome, afferma Elbaz, sistema mobile di difesa aerea sviluppato dalle industrie di difesa israeliane, \u00abquando hai bisogno di una barriera protettiva, la costruisci; quando non hai acqua, la ricrei\u00bb. La tecnologia di Watergen aspira l’umidit\u00e0 dall’aria utilizzando l’energia solare, creando cos\u00ec acqua potabile in loco. Le centraline di acqua dall’aria sono gi\u00e0 in uso in 65 paesi, tra cui la Striscia di Gaza e alcuni villaggi rurali dell’Africa centrale.<\/p>\n

Watergen non \u00e8 che una delle tante aziende, startup e centri di ricerca accademici israeliani che hanno sviluppato e stanno implementando tecnologie di successo per affrontare il problema vitale della mancanza di acqua. La maggior parte \u2013 se non tutte \u2013 le soluzioni sono state messe a punto nel sud di Israele, area ormai nota per l\u2019innovativit\u00e0 delle misure di conservazione idrica.
\nProbabilmente la pi\u00f9 antica, e certamente una delle pi\u00f9 proficue innovazioni israeliane, \u00e8 il sistema di irrigazione a goccia<\/em> creato e sviluppato a met\u00e0 degli anni ’60 nel Kibbutz Hatzerim, nel sud pi\u00f9 arido. Il metodo, allora giudicato rivoluzionario, porta l’acqua lentamente e direttamente alle radici delle colture attraverso una rete di tubi, valvole e gocciolatoi. Oggi la multinazionale dell’irrigazione a goccia Netafim<\/em>, fondata dal Kibbutz, opera in 150 paesi e l’irrigazione a goccia disseta il 75% dei raccolti di Israele.<\/p>\n

Per la sua natura di nazione sul mare, pu\u00f2 sembrare strano che Israele sia giunta relativamente tardi alla desalinizzazione<\/em> su larga scala dell’acqua marina, di cui ha avviato l’implementazione solo nel 2005, nonostante l\u2019attuazione della pratica di osmosi inversa<\/em> che ha rivoluzionato la desalinizzazione dell’acqua. Una pratica sviluppata da Sidney Loeb presso l\u2019Istituto Zuckerberg per le Ricerche sull\u2019Acqua della Ben-Gurion University. Tradizionalmente la desalinizzazione \u00e8 sempre stata un’impresa costosa, ma i progressi israeliani l’hanno resa oggi molto pi\u00f9 accessibile, consentendo l\u2019allargamento del programma. Attualmente cinque grandi strutture sono operative in Israele, pi\u00f9 altre due in fase di sviluppo, che consentono anche l\u2019esportazione di acqua in nazioni in difficolt\u00e0 come la Giordania.<\/p>\n

Per decenni Israele si \u00e8 resa capofila del trattamento delle acque reflue, di cui attualmente riutilizza circa il 90% per l’agricoltura, pi\u00f9 di qualsiasi altra nazione. Ma poich\u00e9 il sistema include il riutilizzo dell’acqua dei servizi igienici, a partire dal 2003 i ricercatori dello Zuckerberg Institute si sono impegnati nella ricerca di un modo di utilizzo pi\u00f9 efficiente di quelle definite acque grigie<\/em>, ossia acque reflue provenienti da abitazioni o da uffici (lavandini, vasche da bagno, lavatrici etc.), che fossero separate dalle acque reflue da toilette. \u00abCi siamo resi conto che se si separano le fonti domestiche, escludendo anche il flusso proveniente dalla cucina, la qualit\u00e0 iniziale delle acque reflue \u00e8 molto pi\u00f9 alta\u00bb, spiega il Prof. Gross dello Zuckerberg Institute. Il sistema, dice, doveva essere reso economicamente sostenibile e privo di rischi per la salute. Il team ha cos\u00ec avviato quello che si \u00e8 rivelato un esperimento di successo, che alla fine ha portato alla creazione di linee guida per l’implementazione.
\nSebbene oggi il sistema delle acque grigie sia impiegato da country club e altre location in Israele, il Ministero della Salute non ne ha approvato l’uso diffuso nella nazione. \u00ab\u00c8 strano che siamo leader mondiali in termini di ricerca sulle acque grigie, ma in termini pratici la ricerca israeliana venga applicata in altri stati, Australia inclusa\u00bb, rileva Gross.<\/p>\n

Quasi tutte le nazioni si sono dotate di impianti di trattamento delle acque reflue. Ma anche gli impianti pi\u00f9 moderni devono fare i conti con il grave problema di livelli di inquinamento superiori a quelli che il sistema pu\u00f2 gestire. L’azienda israeliana Kando<\/em> ha sviluppato una tecnologia estremamente accurata \u2013 una piattaforma di intelligence delle acque reflue<\/em> \u2013 che monitora il flusso in ingresso, identificando le materie di inquinamento pericolose e rendendo cos\u00ec il processo pi\u00f9 efficiente.
\n\u00abA volte, la qualit\u00e0 delle acque reflue in entrata \u00e8 cos\u00ec scadente che i processi non riescono a smaltirle. Spesso gli impianti devono chiudere perch\u00e9 non c’\u00e8 modo di trattarle; di conseguenza vengono scaricate in mare o nei fiumi, non riuscendo a disporre di alternative\u00bb, spiega Jenny Gelman, capo della divisione marketing e comunicazione di Kando. \u00abQuel tipo di ciclo, a volte, incorre ripetutamente in una sola settimana\u00bb. La piattaforma Kando \u00e8 una combinazione di hardware e software che raccoglie e analizza dati da diverse fonti, ed eventualmente avvisa la gestione in modo che la situazione possa essere governata in tempo reale. \u00abLa tecnologia Kando offre agli impianti la capacit\u00e0 di rilevare difformit\u00e0 nella rete, tracciarne la fonte e avere un impatto migliorativo sull\u2019impianto di smaltimento delle acque reflue\u00bb, afferma Gelman.<\/p>\n

Un altro uso rivoluzionario e pratico della piattaforma di intelligence delle acque reflue \u00e8 quello epidemiologico, emerso durante la pandemia di Covid-19. Anche prima che le persone mostrassero segni di malattia, si \u00e8 scoperto che il virus si palesava nelle acque reflue. In un progetto congiunto con l\u2019Universit\u00e0 Ben-Gurion, l’azienda ha sviluppato una tecnica per migliorare lo screening delle acque reflue per le varianti Covid, che fornisce alle autorit\u00e0 sanitarie un preavviso di potenziale focolaio. L’applicazione \u00e8 gi\u00e0 stata adottata dal Ministero della Salute israeliano. Secondo il CEO di Kando Ari Goldfarb, l’azienda sta aiutando i governi di tutto il mondo ad analizzare le loro acque per governare le politiche di salute pubblica, incluso un sistema di allerta precoce sulle toilette degli aerei. La societ\u00e0 ha anche rilevato improvvisi aumenti del virus della poliomielite in Israele, supportando il governo nell\u2019indirizzare risorse verso i quartieri dove la popolazione non \u00e8 vaccinata.<\/p>\n

Almeno due miliardi di persone nel mondo utilizzano acqua proveniente da fonti contaminate, in particolare nei paesi in via di sviluppo, dove l’accesso a risorse idriche sicure \u00e8 spesso inaccessibile o proibitivo. L’acqua viene prelevata dai rubinetti o dai pozzi della comunit\u00e0, a volte anche direttamente da fiumi la cui qualit\u00e0 \u00e8 spesso discutibile. L’acqua contaminata \u00e8 un problema anche in Israele, nelle enclave rurali misconosciute del sud. Una startup israeliana che si occupa anche della sfida mondiale dell’acqua sicura da bere \u00e8 una filiale del Water Energy Lab<\/em> dell’Universit\u00e0 di Tel Aviv, nella Facolt\u00e0 di Ingegneria Fleischman. Il laboratorio, guidato dal Prof. Hadas Mamane, ha sviluppato una tecnologia che utilizza l’illuminazione a LED e l’energia solare per disinfettare l’acqua. Il dispositivo, delle dimensioni di un laptop, battezzato SoLED,<\/em> funziona senza sostanze chimiche o elettricit\u00e0 per debellare il 99,9% di batteri e virus dall’acqua, il che lo rende meno costoso e pi\u00f9 facile da utilizzare rispetto alle soluzioni esistenti in aree pi\u00f9 remote. Il prototipo SoLED \u00e8 ora in fase di testing nelle zone rurali dell’India. L’obiettivo finale, ovviamente, \u00e8 quello di produrne una versione da mettere in commercio per la distribuzione di massa.<\/p>\n

A causa della crisi climatica, oggi miliardi di persone nel mondo \u2013 si stima una persona su quattro \u2013 sperimentano un’estrema scarsit\u00e0 d’acqua, almeno per una parte dell’anno. Con l’aumento dell’impatto del cambiamento climatico, la scarsit\u00e0 d’acqua colpir\u00e0 quasi la met\u00e0 della popolazione mondiale entro il 2025, secondo le stime degli esperti. Ci\u00f2 non vale solo per i paesi poveri: anche gran parte degli Stati Uniti sta esaurendo l’acqua a causa del riscaldamento globale.
\nSia a livello privato che accademico, Israele condivide le sue competenze, le sue tecnologie e le sue strategie politiche con altri stati privi di risorse idriche. Secondo il Washington Institute for Near East Policy, mentre Israele si trova nella regione pi\u00f9 povera d’acqua del mondo, il paese \u00absta aprendo la strada allo sviluppo di tecnologie innovative in questo settore. Dal riciclaggio dell’acqua alla desalinizzazione e all’irrigazione a goccia, le aziende israeliane sono in prima linea nel coniugare ingegno e scienza per porre rimedio a questo problema globale\u00bb.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Ossigeno<\/a>