Changing the Face of the Desert

September 20, 2010

Schrieber’s home, just one mile from the Gaza border, is one of 12 kibbutzim [a community where all property and work are equally shared] and moshavim [a cooperative community where each family owns their own property] in the region that work together to develop this part of the Negev in cooperation with the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The JNF has an annual budget of over US $170 million, and since its foundation in 1901, it has become one of the world’s leading environmental NGO’s, being instrumental in the planting of over 240 million trees and building 200 reservoirs and dams across Israel. This creation of water sources in arid or partly arid areas of the country has resulted in the development of over 250,000 acres [1 million dunams] of sustainable land suitable for various forms of agriculture and the establishment of more than 1,000 parks.

 The provision of water in desert areas has encouraged the growth of new and existing communities in places like the Negev. The region makes up some 60% of the land area of Israel, but is home to only 8% of the population. Slowly but surely the activities of the JNF are changing the demography and the landscape of the desert regions. This is an ongoing project in which Aryeh Schreiber and his fellow farmers have been part of an imaginative and masterly US $600 million, ten-year program to change the Negev Desert into a productive and desirable place to live.

Solving the Water Problem

 As we walk through seeming endless lines of citrus groves, Aryeh Schreiber describes the early years when very limited water was pumped by pipeline from the Yarkon springs near Petach Tikvah in central Israel. “We always knew that the soil in the northern Negev was good, but with only 120 mm [4.7 in] of rain per year, it was impossible to produce even enough food for the demands of the local population. Exporting high-quality produce was no more than a dream.”  In the early 1990s, the JNF conceived a plan to make the development of the Negev one of its main priorities. It was a complete change of thinking in the scale and technology of utilizing waste water.

Besor Reservoir
Photo by Isranet The plan, known as Action Plan Negev, called for the construction of a three-part reservoir complex to be known as the Besor Reservoirs. This reservoir would be filled with recycled waste water that had been produced and treated in the greater Tel Aviv region and pumped south to Besor for agricultural use. The project is an unqualified success, and some 10 million cubic meters of treated water is being pumped to the northwestern Negev annually. Such is the size of the reservoirs, that seven million cubic meters of water can be stored at one time. The availability of new sources of water makes it possible for about 5,000 people in the northern Negev to earn a living from agriculture and also benefit from the fact that 50% of the produce is being exported.

 Although recycling and desalination has made up some of the shortfall in providing water for domestic, commercial, and agricultural uses, there is still an overall chronic shortage of water. Many innovative schemes are being tried in order to avoid waste. One such scheme is the containment of water from run-offs in urban areas in the rainy winter season.

Yeroham water treatment plant Another is the recycling of sewage to a standard that can be used for all agriculture and the maintenance of public parks and gardens. Today’s sewage recycling plants are highly efficient and cost effective. In the town of Yeroham, 35 kilometers [28 miles] southeast of Beersheva, all sewage water from the town’s 10,000 inhabitants is being collected and sent to a nearby treatment plant a few kilometers to the west. The treated Yeroham water is stored in a local reservoir and subsequently used to irrigate.

Monitoring Water Usage

Photo by www.israelimages.com /Lev Borodulin Even as reservoirs are being built, ways are being found—by research and trial and error—to reduce the amount of water needed to sustain the various crops.  Careful monitoring has enabled the farmer to reduce the amount of irrigation necessary to grow first class produce. Each tree and plant is given water by various controlled methods of drip feeding. Successful trials of inserting an electronic sensor into the trunk of a tree within a group of trees can relay to a computer if the moisture content is low. If so, the computer will automatically release water to the tree to maintain its correct hydration.

 Perhaps Aryeh Schreiber summed it up best of all. “They flush a toilet in Tel Aviv, we grow a grapefruit in the Negev, and they eat the fruit in Moscow.”

Source: By Edgar Asher, Isranet