White House Taps Israeli Technologies For Solving California’s Water Crisis

By David Shamah, The Times of Israel March 27, 2016 2 minutes

California Route 1 via Daveynin/Flickr

This article was first published by The Times of Israel and was re-posted with permission.

In the US, cleantech has often focused on ways to develop alternative energies, like solar and wind, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that water may be an even bigger problem.

“Just look at what happened in Flint,” said Mark Donig, a member of the steering committee of the recently formed Israel-California Green-Tech Partnership. “The lead in the water there is due to a longstanding infrastructure problem that is going to take years and billions of dollars to fix, and it’s a problem that is likely to repeat itself in many other places.

“As a developer of inexpensive and relatively inexpensive water technologies, Israel is a place the US must look to in order to ensure that farmers, industry, and citizens have access to clean, potable water.”

Arid areas around San Diego, California via Flickr

That’s not just Donig’s opinion. The White House recently announced a series of projects and programs designed to “elevate a national dialogue on the state of our nation’s water resources and infrastructure,” with support, investments, and resources provided for technologies that can improve water management, promote conservation, and “advance water sustainability on all fronts.”

Nearly all of the 30 projects on the White House’s list of approved projects were born in the US – except for the one approved for Los Angeles, which will establish a cleantech incubator where Israeli firms will develop solutions for California’s ongoing water crisis.

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That project, announced earlier this month at a summit on water solutions, “builds on California and Israel’s March 2014 memorandum of understanding to cooperate on developing water and green technology solutions,” the White House said in a statement.

“Today, the partnership is announcing a new joint venture with the city of Los Angeles’ Cleantech Incubator (LACI) that will culminate in the introduction of 10 Israeli companies in water, energy, and agricultural technologies to the California market. These companies will help accelerate the shift to a greener economy, with a particular focus on benefiting drought-stricken populations across the state, including the nearly 123,000 farmers in California.”