92 «Necessity is the mother of invention» is a well-known, sometimes overused proverbial saying. But it seems fitting as a shorthand explanation of how a country that is 60% desert, that has historically suffered from perpetual water shortages and is experiencing a rapidly expanding population, has managed to produce 20% more water than it needs. Only a few years ago, the growing gap between demand and available water supplies was becoming the national nightmare. Yet, Israel managed to avoid that parched future through pioneering technological innovation and infrastructure. If a need is the driving force for most new inventions, as the saying has it, then as a very small country with not enough water, a finite resource, there was a challenge that had to be met. Some of the major inventions, innovations and patents come from Israel’s southern Negev region, a living laboratory of arid lands science and technology. Promoting and shepherding the development of technologies dealing with desert-related challenges is DeserTech, one the newest innovation communities. The community was founded by the Merage Foundation Israel, a catalytic foundation aiming to promote economic growth in the Negev region, relying on the territory's competitive advantages. The Merage Foundation Israel saw the potential of creating an innovation cluster in the Negev, and joined forces with the Israel Innovation Institute, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Together they initiated the DeserTech Community. DeserTech is located in Be’er-Sheva, the so-called “capital of the Negev”. It promotes the development, adaptation and commercialization of technologies that enable sustainable living in arid climates, particularly in the areas most affected by water scarcity. It runs international seminars for the development and adaptation of desert-related technologies and creates hundreds of business opportunities for Israeli startups in the fields of water, agriculture, renewable energy and infrastructure. The presence of thousands of startups and more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the world, makes Israel a natural hub for innovation. How to support and bring together all the diverse companies, academic centers and startups that address global needs is a challenge being met by the non-profit Israel Innovation Institute. The mission of this do-tank is to establish innovation communities in which entrepreneurs and startups in fields including healthcare, agriculture, transportation and climate change can share mutual challenges and solutions. The Institute helps the communities find resources, make connections and – vitally – exchange knowledge with industry players: how to match needs with solutions and create business opportunities. In addition, the Israel Innovation Institute accompanies and supports international organizations that join the Israeli innovation ecosystem. «Israel’s prime minister David Ben-Gurion was clever enough to understand that 60% of the country is desert, and if we don’t manage to live in this desert we will not survive», states Prof. Amit Gross, director of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. «Water issues have been a major concern since the beginning. We had to find solutions to water scarcity, where in other countries it wasn’t an issue. So, we have the advantage of several years during which we dealt with these concerns». Patricia Golan - the DeserTech Community Water in the desert Water disinfection and recycling, desalination, drip irrigation: Israel shares its expertise internationally
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUzNDc=