India & Israel: Cooperation on water management

By Ritu Jha

response.mumbai @timesgroup.com


Even advanced countries around the world and states like California are noticing Israel's success in the field of water management and recycling. For example, in the US, the state of California is currently suffering from a severe water crisis, primarily as a result of inefficient and failed water management in agriculture.

The recycling of water in agriculture in California is only five per cent whereas in Israel the rate is 85 per cent.

However, to further deepen the bilateral cooperation, during Prime Minister's Modi visit, the two MoU's were signed to resolve the above issues between the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation of India and the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources of the State of Israel on National Campaign for Water Conservation in India.

The MoU was also signed by U.P. Jal Nigam, Government of Uttar Pradesh, and the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources of the State of Israel on State Water Utility Reform in India.

Even the India based SUN Group signed a partnership with Israel based Water-Gen to share a technology on extracting water from thin air, since groundwater extraction is growing and has become increasingly unsustainable.

About 60 to 70 per cent of water consumption around the world is absorbed by the agricultural sector, and in many parts of the country, groundwater levels are declining steadily.

Vinayak Gupta, CEO Zero Mass Water explaining about his company based in Arizona said, "He makes drinking water from thin air." Which means enabling drinking water in the cheapest manner possible. The company was basically founded on the principal of making water accessible for one and all anyone on this planet.

He though has not yet signed any partnership with Israel or India but was hopeful that, such forum would help build the connectivity. "I hope to have some partnership with Israel based company soon," he said.

The Zero Mass Water company is just three years old and sells solar panels that make pure water from vapour in the air. Concerned about groundwater crises he said, he supports the idea of using existing groundwater resources to be able to be drive conservation.

"But I think another angle to look into it, and distributing and generating it," said Gupta. Gia Schneider, cofounder and the CEO of an international water and energy innovation company based in California said, "When we see India, we see a huge potential we are looking at India and started doing irrigation standard in a couple of states and we saw a lot of similarities with California in couple of states in India."