World Bank Allies with Israel to Fight Freshwater Scarcity

June 20, 2015

214

June 20, 2015 – You may not like Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory and disagree with its policies but you cannot ignore what this country’s science and technology community bring to the world in advances covering a wide range of fields from agriculture to medicine to quantum physics and more.

This week Israel and the World Bank announced a cooperative agreement to bring its drip irrigation and water conservation technology to Developing World markets. This latest success acknowledges Israel’s world leadership in drip irrigation and notably two home-grown companies, Netafim and NaanDanJain.

Drip irrigation is the answer to many of the problems farmers are facing in drought prone and freshwater scarce regions of the planet. With drip a farmer can water crops using a fraction of the water of conventional field “flood” irrigation, the most common practice today. Israel’s two leading drip irrigation companies are reaching out to countries in the Developing World and offering novel assistance such as “pay as you go” financing of installations.

Now Israel is formalizing a relationship with the World Bank’s Water Global Practice to spread the technology around the globe. The timing couldn’t be better. Today only 5% of the world’s farmers use drip irrigation. When you consider the numerous drought challenges the world faces brought about by changing climate it makes sense that freshwater conservation would be best facilitated by implementing a technology capable of delivering water precisely where it is needed and not anywhere else. Drip irrigation offers an added benefit, opening up marginal agricultural land for growing food crops. This should give Developing World farmers greater income helping them to lift their families out of poverty and their societies out of food shortages.

The program will have Israeli experts working with farmers across the Developing World on drip irrigation, desalination, water filtration and sanitation projects. Director for water at the World Bank, Jennifer Sara, states “Israel has had to manage water services while operating under extreme conditions of scarcity….it’s innovative practices are globally recognized — both from technological and institutional perspectives — and will undoubtedly carry lessons for many of the World Bank Group’s clients facing water-security challenges.”

The World Bank’s Water Global Practice today holds a portfolio of 181 projects worth $22 billion US. Most of these focus on freshwater supply and sanitation. Now the group can expand their investment in irrigation and agricultural water-resource management projects by bringing Israeli expertise to the global community.