TECHNOLOGY - Israel's Water Technology

"Could Israel’s water technology ease drought conditions in California?" PBS NewsHour 4/25/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Could the technology used in Israel that successfully turned the country's water shortage into a surplus be implemented in California to ease the state's drought?  KQED Public Media reporter Daniel Potter joins Alison Stewart via Skype from San Francisco to discuss.

ALISON STEWART, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR:  Keeping Israel’s successful plan in mind, we wondered if or how Israel’s water technology, especially its use of desalination, could be put to use in drought-stricken California.

For more about that now, we are joined now from San Francisco by Daniel Potter.  He is a reporter for KQED Science.

So, Daniel, it’s sort of obvious.  People look and think, well, California’s is obviously right next to the Pacific Ocean.  Why isn’t desalination a bigger part of the conversation about the drought?  Why isn’t it?

DANIEL POTTER, KQED:  I think the short answer is because desalination is a really — setting up a desalination plant is a very long-term process.  It requires a lot of permitting and a huge amount of investment.  So, setting up a desalination plant, a lot of people I have talked to have said there is a good chance that plant would not be finished until long after the drought ended.

ALISON STEWART:  Are there desalination plant working, in progress in California?  I know there are a couple that are in the process of being constructed, correct?

DANIEL POTTER:  There are a few tiny ones that already exist and that are desalinating presently.  The biggest one is in Carlsbad.  It’s set to come on line probably this fall, and when it’s ready it will produce something like 7 percent of the water for San Diego County.  That project is on the order of something like $900 million or maybe $1 billion.

"Will Israel’s new water technology yield political gain in the arid Middle East?" PBS NewsHour 4/26/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Over the past few years in Israel, the country's water shortage has become a surplus.  Through a combination of conservation, reuse and desalination, the country now has more water than it needs.  And that could translate to political progress for the country in the Middle East, one of the most water-stressed regions in the world.  NewsHour's Martin Fletcher reports.