California and Israel, both hubs for innovation, share something else as well: massive water challenges that stem from arid climates and a high demand for scarce water resources. With no end in sight for the drought in California, residents have intensified their search for solutions to alleviate this problem.
Many of these solutions can be found in Israel, which has developed world-leading innovations in water technology. Israel is 60 percent desert, so many of its inventions in this area were born of necessity, leading the country to set new standards for water purification, recycling and water system management. In addition, Israel reuses more than 85 percent of its wastewater, the highest rate in the world, followed by Germany with 18 percent. In America, these numbers are in the single digits.
Thanks to Israel’s “splashy” water prowess, the country’s drought has become a thing of the past. Today, Israel has so much water that it can even export it. California is hoping to wash away many of its own water challenges with the help of Israeli expertise.
One such example is the Carlsbad desalination plant, where technology from Israel Desalination Enterprises will provide 300,000 Californians with clean water through a process called reverse osmosis and, according to reports, will support 500 jobs and generate around $50 million annually in estimated spending for the region’s economy.
California farmers also are adopting Israel’s drip-irrigation technology that has revolutionized farming throughout Africa and Asia. In countries such as India and China, this technology has helped meet the demands of growing populations with far less water.
Israel’s water technologies will be on display at WATEC, a water technology conference, in Tel Aviv Oct. 13-15. In the meantime, Israel’s economic mission to the West Coast brought a delegation of Israeli water companies focused on water purification and wastewater treatment to California and Washington earlier this month to exhibit what the “Water Nation” has to offer. The delegation visited San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Seattle July 15-17. The following companies were among those participating in the mission:
• Advanced Brine Solutions, founded earlier this year, provides innovative and cost-efficient solutions for treatment and management of brine and waste streams, with a specific focus on eliminating environmental hazards involved in the process. Hutchinson Water, a global Fortune 500 company, owns the company.
• Amiad Water Systems, one of the world’s leading providers of water filtration systems, offers a range of filtration solutions to clients in more than 80 countries. Founded on a kibbutz in 1962, Amiad now processes millions of cubic meters of water worldwide every day — to municipalities, agricultural sites, oil and gas installations and industrial plants.
• Atlantium Technologies, which focuses on water safety, serves such clients as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Pfizer, Teva and New York City. The company’s sustainable water solutions, using its proprietary hydro-optic ultraviolet methods, previously were achievable only by using heat pasteurization and chemical disinfection — processes that are harmful to the environment. Atlantium’s methods get better results without the damaging effects.
• Triple-T, an engineering company made up of design specialists, is central to Israel’s water R&D through its laboratory based at Kfar Giladi in northern Israel.
Startup of the month
If we’ve got water on our minds, then this week’s Startup of the Month has to go to AYYEKA, whose pioneering water-monitoring solutions make it easier, cheaper and faster to observe remotely any problematic water source, from desert flooding to wastewater seeping through manhole covers. AYYEKA combines smart hardware with cloud computing to provide up-to- the-minute data analysis.
Acquisition of the month
Lumenis — a medical-laser company used in surgery, aesthetics and ophthalmology to minimize invasive surgeries and to treat previously inoperable problems — has agreed to an approximately $510 million buyout from the investment firm XIO Group. Lumenis has over 220 registered patents and operates in more than 100 countries. The buyout comes about a year after Lumenis went public in the United States, and is expected to be finalized within the next two months.
Gili Ovadia is the S.F.-based Israeli consul for economic affairs to the West Coast.