Jesse Townsley
Editor, Advocates for Water
Considering that humans can survive, on average, about three to four days without water, it’s not surprising that people in drylands would be in front when it comes to fixing problems with water. The Israelis, in a few years, have gone from water shortages to water security. Israel is currently the only place on Earth where the desert is shrinking rather than growing. On the opposite side of the globe in Tucson, Arizona, Brad Lancaster has been experimenting with traditional and innovative methods of “rainwater harvesting”. The water Lancaster uses comes entirely from the 11 inches of rain that Tucson receives on average per year, including the many plants and trees on his property. Brad’s two-volume guide is essential reading for a growing global group of rainwater harvesters.
While these successes are cause to rejoice for those who live in deserts, people in all areas facing problems with water can find ideas, tools, and inspiration from these water pioneers. The number of places facing water shortages in the US and around the world is growing. For example, a 2014 US Government Accountability Office report stated, “According to state water managers, experts, and literature GAO reviewed, freshwater shortages are expected to continue into the future. In particular, 40 of 50 state water managers expected shortages in some portion of their states under average conditions in the next 10 years.”
Unfortunately, shortages aren’t the only problem occurring with the world’s water. People in some areas of water abundance are finding their water is unusable. Beaches are closing, fisheries have been destroyed, and tap water has become undrinkable. Finally, in some locations, the problem isn’t too little, it’s too much water, with flooding laying many communities around the world to waste. We need to act and we need to do it now.
The best place to learn how to successfully manage something is from people who have already mastered it. So let’s see what we might be able to learn from the dryland water pioneers.
The Israelis’ Water Miracle
Reverse osmosis desalination, drip irrigation, turning wastewater from a nuisance into a valuable commodity, and breeding plants that thrive with saltwater are all examples of water inventions pioneered in Israel. With water security in Israel now assured, Israeli water professionals have been working on development projects in places as diverse as California, Brazil, Turkey, India, Thailand, and the Philippines.
According to Seth Siegel’s book Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water Starved World, the Israeli water movement began in the late 1950s when Simcha Bass, Israel’s “Water Man”, started experimenting with drip irrigation. Marketing of the technology began in 1966 by one of Israel’s kibbutzes, and drip irrigation is now a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. With this method of irrigation, water is supplied to the roots of plants in slow drips, either above or below ground. This greatly reduces the amount of water wasted through evaporation and runoff. It also tends to lead to healthier plants as water is continually provided to plants without the alternating periods of “flooding and drought” caused by traditional irrigation.
Drip irrigation led the Israelis to “fertigation” where, instead of large amounts of fertilizer being dumped on fields, plants receive a mixture of fertilizer and water in continual drops. Farmers and gardeners don’t spend extra money on wasted fertilizer and virtually none is left to wash into watersheds. According to an article in the Times of Israel, strawberry farmers using fertigation in the UK reduced their water usage by 30% while increasing crop yields by 28% and decreasing pesticide use by 70%. A process called “nutrigation” is a further development in this direction. With nutrigation, non-arable substrates such as sand are used simply to hold plants in place and all nutrients are then added. This process allows for successful food growth in regions where it would normally be difficult or even impossible— with reduced water consumption compared to traditional irrigation.
Reverse osmosis, the current leading method of desalination, began as a dream of Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion and early experiments were largely funded by the US’s Lyndon Johnson administration in the 1960s. The Israelis first developed a process of vacuum freezing water to remove salt which was partially successful. This was followed by Mechanical Vapor Compression and Multi-Effect Distillation, both still used around the world. Reverse osmosis, the current most efficient method, where water is pushed through a membrane with nano-sized holes, was finally perfected at the beginning of the 21st century. According to a 2019 article in Scientific American, around six new large desalination plants have been coming online every year worldwide.
Along with desalination, the Israelis successfully created methods for irrigating plants with salt water. They searched the world for plants that grow in water with high-saline content such as glasswort, considered something of a delicacy in the UK, and algae, eaten by both humans and livestock in various parts of the world. The Israelis have also bred plants that thrive in saltwater. They found that the fruits from plants developed this way, though somewhat smaller, were actually sweeter than their normal counterparts. Experiments in the use of saltwater in farming are now being conducted throughout the Middle East. The Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, for example, is working on increasing the salinity tolerance of types of hardy crops such as date palms, sorghum, and millet. An article titled “Saltwater Saviors” on ozy.com states, “A consortium that includes Boeing, Honeywell, and the United Arab Emirates’ Etihad airline has been working on a five-year project to cultivate the plants in Abu Dhabi’s highly salinated desert soil, watered with seawater from the Gulf of Arabia. The aim is to turn the oils from the plants into jet fuel for commercial use.”
Starting in the 1950s, the Israelis pioneered the large-scale use of treated wastewater rather than dumping it into oceans and waterways. When they experimented with piping partially-treated wastewater into an isolated desert reservoir, they discovered that the toxins in the water were completely filtered out by the sand. Carefully monitored experiments using this water for irrigation then proved its use was completely safe. Today around 85% of Israel’s treated wastewater is used in irrigation. By contrast, according to Siegel, the US currently dumps about 92% of its treated wastewater into lakes, rivers, and oceans.
Israeli water management methods often include high technology. Fruit is picked early and ripened with physical and chemical processes in controlled environments. Plants have been developed using bioengineering. Computer-operated systems manage timing and delivery of water and nutrients to plants, as well as helping generate and maintain microclimates in greenhouses.
Cooperation is a major factor in the Israeli miracle in the desert. Israel’s national water carrier manages all water used in the country, even from private pumps. As Siegel puts it, Israelis “…have surrendered private ownership and the benefits of a market economy in water for a system that offers universal access to high-quality water. The public gives the government the power to manage, regulate, price, and allocate water in its name with the belief that the common good will be the greatest beneficiary.” The Israelis’ central water authority uses water more efficiently than multiple utilities with their redundant infrastructure and lack of coordination. It also eliminates the possibility of someone buying up water rights and barring people from their own water.*
This quote by senior Israeli government official Ori Yogev from Siegel’s book gives a good perspective on the value of achieving water security: “Our conquest in water was like winning a second war of independence.” Siegel adds, “In much of the world, water is a source of disunity. Israel has found a way to use it as a source of national cohesion.”
Israeli guiding philosophies for water management
Here is a list of guiding philosophies used by Israel for successfully achieving water security from Siegel’s Let There Be Water.
1. “The water belongs to the nation.”
2. Cheap water is expensive.
3. Use water to unify the nation.
4. Regulators, not politicians.
5. Create a water-respecting culture.
6. Integrate all possible sources of water and all possible technologies for conservation.
7. Use water fees for water. (In Israel, all water and sewage fees are used for the water system.)
8. Innovation wanted.
9. Measure and monitor.
10. Plan today for long into the future.
11. Advocates needed.
12. The time to act is now.
Brad Lancaster and the Global Water Harvesters
A farmer in Zimbabwe named Zephaniah Phiri Maseko inspired Brad Lancaster’s experimentations with water. “I learned from him in the driest region of Zimbabwe,” Lancaster said in a talk at the Echo International Agriculture Conference in 2015. “The great thing about Mr. Phiri is that he taught himself how to harvest the rain. One of the things I find very inspirational about his story is that we have everything we need all around us, we just have to see it, interact it, and partner with it.”
Lancaster’s two-volume Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond is an extensive guide to principles, techniques, and tools. The books are profusely illustrated for easy comprehension. Volume 1 focuses on planning and designing. Volume 2 goes further into specifics, such as how to build berms, basins, terraces, drains, diversion swales, dams, greywater systems, outdoor showers, and composting toilets. Valuable tips on choosing and planting vegetation are presented. Approaches for both individuals and communities are included.
Lancaster has combined traditional, low-tech methods, including permaculture principles, with contemporary high-tech tools, adding a fair amount of innovative steampunkish problem-solving. In a video by Kirsten Dirksen, Brad gives a tour of his home and his 1/8th acre property, providing an under-the-hood view of how his concepts work in real life. For example, his solar-powered clothes washer is in a shed on the highest point of his property. He can hook the drain hose from the washer to any of four sets of pipes which gravity-feed water to plants in different areas of his property. The pipes are marked “OLIVE + POMEGRANATE”, “FIG”, “ORANGE”, and “WHITE SAPOTE”. Brad says in the video, “I grew up in a suburban household with all the modern conveniences….What I’m trying to do here is [make it so] I cannot help but make the connection— where does my water come from, where does my food come from, where does my water go?”
Lancaster’s achievement so impressed his Tucson neighbors that his whole block has now been greened. Brad has also provided guidance to the city of Tucson on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites, and policy. Lancaster’s bio states that he has “designed edible rain-irrigated landscapes doubling as flood control and community-building strategies for housing developments, parks, schools, businesses, ranches, and neighborhoods. Brad’s aim is always to boost communities’ true health and wealth by using simple overlapping strategies to augment the region’s hydrology, ecosystems, and economies, living systems upon which we depend.”
Brad Lancaster’s Guiding Principles for Water Harvesting
In his Echo Conference talk Lancaster presented the following eight water-harvesting principles. Brad points out that these principles are general guidelines, not laws. He advises, “Use what works, if it doesn’t, evolve it.” The most important thing is keeping in mind the big picture.
1. Long and thoughtful observation.
Seeing what does work, build on that. Seeing what doesn’t work, change that.
2. Start at the top of the watershed and work your way down.
Use your first chance, best chance, and last chance.
3. Start small and simple.
4. Slow, spread, and infiltrate water flow.
5. Always have an overflow and use it as a resource.
6. Maximize living and organic ground cover
7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions”
Ensure every function is supported by multiple resources in the system.
8. The feedback loop: long and thoughtful observation. Life is a long process.
You need to start.
The time to act is now.
Even though the methods developed by the Israelis and by Lancaster came out of drylands, they offer lessons for people everywhere. For example, as Siegel mentions, drip irrigation and fertigation can help slow or stop problems with harmful algal blooms. Because of their efficiency in providing water and nutrients, drip irrigation and fertigation can also make plants grow faster and healthier. In the timber industry, for example, this can reduce environmental damage because fewer trees need to be felled.
Lancaster’s principles for managing water flow on a micro-scale can also apply to an entire watershed: Start at the top of the watershed and work your way down. Use your first chance, best chance, and last chance. Slow, spread, and infiltrate water flow. Always have an overflow and use it as a resource. Maximize living and organic ground cover. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions”, i.e., ensure every function is supported by multiple resources in the system.
For those working on water security, I’d like to suggest keeping both the Israeli’s and Lancaster’s guiding principles somewhere you can refer back to them for inspiration in working on whatever challenge with water may be confronting you. The time to act is now.
For more information:
Israel’s Water Solutions
Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water Starved World, Seth M. Siegel. 2015/2017. Thomas Dunne Books, NY.
“Agriculture in the Negev: Today’s Desert Pioneers”. August 8, 2018. aabgu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNmN_bZNsk
“How Israel became a leader in water use in the Middle East”. April 26, 2015. PBS NewsHour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taMWUjda3fA
“Israeli start-up goes for the silver at MassChallenge”, David Shamah. November 3, 2014. The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-start-up-goes-for-the-silver-at-masschallenge/
“Saltwater Saviors”, Emily Cadei. April 15, 2014. ozy.com. https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/saltwater-saviors/30923
Brad Lancaster and Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape, 3rd Edition, Brad Lancaster, illustrated by Joe Marshall. 2019. Rainsource Press, Tucson, AZ.
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2: Water-Harvesting Earthworks, 2nd Edition, Brad Lancaster, illustrated by Joe Marshall. 2019. Rainsource Press, Tucson, AZ.
Rainsource Press’ website: https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/about/rainsourcepress/
“Water-harvesting principles & the story of an African rain farmer: Design guidelines for regenerative water and fertility management”, Brad Lancaster. Echo International Agriculture Conference, November 1, 2015. Echo, Inc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_WZ789lpM
“Dryland harvesting home hacks sun, rain, food & surroundings”, Kirsten Dirksen. August 7, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcAMXm9zITg&t=1851s
Footnote
* Examples of this include the Saudis buying land and water rights in California and Arizona in order to grow crops such as alfalfa to feed their cows back in Saudi Arabia and corporations buying water rights in communities to bottle and ship water across the country and planet.