Support BGU
Support BGU by donating toward research and programs
Make Water Not War
September 25, 2012
While Western experts see the potential for conflict over water in the Middle East, BGU's Prof. Eilon Adar considers the prospect of a war over water to be highly unlikely.
“In Israel, we already consume, by far, more water than God provides us with. So we create more water,” says Prof. Adar, director of the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research.
The Zuckerberg Institute "makes water" by recycling water through sewage treatment and by desalinating both seawater and saline ground water.
About two-thirds of water used in farming in Israel is reclaimed sewage water, 25 per cent is fresh and about seven per cent is brackish, or salty. Certain crops – tomatoes, melons and asparagus – thrive on saline water.
"Our farmers managed to show everyone that you can do more with less," says Prof. Adar.
As for Israel's neighbors, it seems that water is a matter of quiet coexistence in the Middle East. All groundwater reserviors in the Middle East are shared by at least two countries: Israel and Jordan (Arava aquifers); Syria, Israel and Lebanon (Jordan River resources), and Israel and the West Bank (Judean and coastal aquifers).
