Israel Recycles Waste Water on Large Scale

Israel's uses waste water purification for 50% of agricultural water, and recycles four times the household waste water of any other country

Waste Water Treatment Pond, Jerusalem, Israel

Waste water purification is not a new concept. But it is not one that has been widely adopted by many countries. For most nations, waste water purification has not been a necessity since water supply has been abundant. Now with climate change, more nations may need to look into this as an option.

Israel, located in one of the world's most water-stressed regions, has been forced to come up with technologies to add to their water supply. We wrote before about large desalination systems developed and installed by the country. In addition to these, Israel has been quietly implementing waste water purification for many years. An amazing thirty years ago, before global warming was a household phrase, Israel was running out of water, fast. They didn't have enough water for agriculture. And so, necessity became the mother of invention, and Israel began to quietly irrigate its crop fields with toilet water. Purified, of course, but Israel was in no hurry to inform the public of the less than appetizing solution to growing the nation's food supply.

Fifty percent of the water Israel uses for farming is recycled. And despite the growing water scarcity all over the globe, Israel is still the only country to practice waste water purification and recycling to such a large extent, recycling four times the household waste water of any other country, over 400 million cubic meters a year. Many Israelis aren't even aware it's being done. And Israeli legislatures are working on a bill that would mandate buildings to recycle greywater (all the buildings waste water not including toilet water).

Now that interest for waste water purification and recycling is growing all over the world, many Israeli businesses have been thriving by sharing new and improved waste water purification and recycling systems and techniques with other countries. Some waste water purification technologies exported include purifying the water using ultraviolet light and even bacteria. Israel makes about 1.5 billion a year exporting their numerous waste water purification technologies.