A new wind blows between Israelis and Palestinians

By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C 
June 28, 2010

Despite the latest tensions, two companies – one Palestinian and one Israeli – are integrating wind turbines together in the West Bank and beyond.

A bridge of peace: The team from Israel Wind Power and Brothers Engineering Group.

A path toward peace may be blowing in the wind, if a new wind energy project between a Palestinian and an Israeli company succeeds. The two companies, Israel Wind Power based in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv and Brothers Engineering Group from Bethlehem in the West Bank, have just announced their intention to cooperate in the building and selling of wind turbines in the West Bank region and beyond.

Most significant, they are undeterred by the latest tensions between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and world powers in the wake of the recent Turkish-led flotilla incident that occurred near Gaza.

Brothers Engineering Group was founded by Dr. Mohammed Salem, a pharmacist, businessman and social entrepreneur with Engineers without Borders. Salem, the company’s CEO, has been in the wind business since 2006 and employs 15 people in Bethlehem. His company supplies wind turbines and solar solutions to the West Bank region.

"Business collaboration in the area of wind energy is something which will be for the benefit of everyone. It will serve as a bridge of peace for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Salem declares.

"We will be one company, together," Salem tells ISRAEL21c, adding that: "The plan is from yesterday not tomorrow." The two companies plan on cooperating in marketing, manufacturing and installation of wind turbines to generate electricity on a scale of 50 kW to provide wind power for factories, offices and private homes.   

Start with the PA and move beyond

In fact, a year ago the Brothers Group made e-mail contact (in English, their common language) with Israel Wind Energy, a company that was founded about a year ago, which provides wind turbine solutions and has also developed its own wind turbine. "We got emails from them last year," says Yanir Avital, the Israeli company’s founder, standing at Salem’s side. "They were interested in our product. We visited their company in Bethlehem and felt they could be a good partner. We could use [Salem's] connections, and with our connections we could help their company go one or two steps ahead."

The two sides intend to first cooperate on the integration of the wind turbines in the PA and later branch out beyond the region. "We’d like to develop and install wind turbines in the territories," says Avital. "In Israel we have very few places that can use this kind of energy."

Building their own wind turbines in the Bethlehem region for about five years, the Brothers Group supplies off-grid wind energy in the West Bank based on orders from non-profit organizations that direct the energy to those who need it most. They also supply turbines to private clients who buy them to offset electricity costs.

While the PA says it plans to offer feed-in tariffs from the Palestinian energy and utilities companies to the people who invest in renewable energy, as is currently the case in Israel and the US, at the moment no working network exists, Salem explains, so that for now his customers are either NGOs, or private citizens looking to reduce their energy costs.

The Brothers Group offers university students in the West Bank courses in building wind turbines, some of which are used for treating wastewater. The company also has experience with solar energy. Salem believes that the partnership with Israel Wind Energy will be mutually beneficial: "We will be good partners for designing and building big turbines, with our technology and their technology."

Israel Wind Power’s turbines are light, quiet and aesthetic, according to the company.

Expanding into the wind

In the West Bank, the Brothers Group doesn’t import any parts, but builds everything from scratch with the help of 10 engineers and five laborers. "Our turbines are built from parts from Palestine. We are the first and only wind company in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine that’s building turbines," Salem asserts. He says he’d like to work in the Gaza Strip as well, but it’s impossible to bring in the parts, since the Israeli government highly regulates such materials which could also be used to build missiles.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian company builds about one wind turbine a day, which can generate from 200 to 2,000 watts of power, per hour.

Israel Wind Energy is already building wind turbine solutions slated for imminent export to Europe and Russia – these are mostly turbines that can convert wind energy for heating water. In just a few months the company is expected to begin selling its ‘Dude Ruah’ (‘wind tank’) that is currently in production. Founded to coincide with attractive feed-in tariffs offered in Israel, the company has also developed its own wind turbine which works well on household roofs and sports an attractive design and low-noise output.

"The turbines we make are light, quiet and aesthetic," Avital tells ISRAEL21c, pointing to one designed with an Israeli flag. A single kilowatt unit costs about $5,000 he says and would provide about one-quarter of the energy used in a mid-sized home.

However, according to Avital there is only one location in the Golan Heights which is ideal for wind, and the next suitable place in area is in the West Bank. He believes that cooperating with the West Bank-based Brothers Group could help the Israeli company to expand into regions where there is more wind.

A blessed enterprise

Yoram Suissa, the business development manager of Israel Wind Power, says that through the collaboration his Palestinian partners will be able to display their technology in the international arena: "We will be a pipeline for our Palestinian friends and colleagues for their products to be marketed both in Israel and abroad."

With its six employees, Israel Wind Power, which was formed and is financed by the Y. Avital holding company, plans to offer technical knowledge and professional training for large capacity turbines, as well as advanced wind energy approaches.

"We see this joint business venture as a business enterprise which connects these two communities in a blessed way, setting aside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," says Salem. "We believe that this is an example of the ability of ordinary people to bridge gaps between our communities, especially during these stormy days."

The two companies hope to have projects up and running within the next year. That is, of course, assuming that the fickle political winds don’t blow the plans off course.

Source: Israel21C.org

Moneycontrol.com, May 17, 2010

An Israeli consortium unveiled the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant on Sunday in the coastal city of Hadera, hoping to help alleviate the arid country’s water shortage.

Israel’s H2ID, which is jointly owned by IDE Technologies and Shikun & Binui, said its plant will supply 127 million cubic metres of desalinated water a year, or about 20 percent of the yearly household consumption in Israel.

It is the third in a series of five desalination plants being built over the next few years that will eventually supply Israel with about 750 million cubic metres annually as traditional water sources dwindle with a rising population and low winter rainfalls.

The Hadera facility was the first to be funded almost entirely from foreign funds, said IDE CEO Avshalom Felber.  

IDE Technologies, co-owned by Israel Chemicals and the Delek Group, said it raised most of the 1.6 billion shekels (USD 425 million) from European banks.

Bigger desalination plants can be found in Saudi Arabia, Felber said, which use a thermal-based technology to desalinate sea water. IDE’s reverse osmosis techonologies requires less energy and is friendlier to the environment, he said.

Israel’s main sources of natural fresh water are underground acquifers and the Sea of Galilee, which has seen dangerously low levels due to overdrawing.

Shmulik Shai, CEO of H2ID, said the plant will supply water at the cost of USD 0.57 per cubic metre and will demand 450 gigawatts of electricity each year.

IDE, or Israel Desalination Enterprises Technologies, has operations in 40 countries. Shikun & Binui is Israel’s largest construction firm.

By PATRICK MOSER, AFP, May 3, 2010

The once mighty Jordan River, where Christians believe Jesus was baptized, is now little more than a polluted stream that could die next year unless the decay is halted, environmentalists say.

The famed river "has been reduced to a trickle south of the Sea of Galilee, devastated by overexploitation, pollution and lack of regional management," Friends of the Earth, Middle East said in a report.

More than 98 per cent of the river’s flow has been diverted by Israel, Syria and Jordan over the years.

"The remaining flow consists primarily of sewage, fish pond water, agricultural run-off and saline water," the environmentalists from Israel, Jordan and the West Bank said in the report to be presented in Amman today.

"Without concrete action, the LJR (lower Jordan River) is expected to run dry at the end of 2011."

The river – which runs 217 kilometres from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea – and its tributaries are shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank.

In 1847, a U.S. naval officer who led an expedition along the river described navigating down cascading rapids and waterfalls. Today, the Jordan is a brackish stream barely a few metres wide. 

A few kilometres south of the Sea of Galilee – which is actually a lake – a dam cuts off the flow of the river. Just south of the dam, raw sewage gushes from a pipe.

"This is what is today the source of the lower Jordan River," Friends of the Earth director for Israel Gidon Bromberg said, pointing to the foul-smelling water.

"No one can say this is holy water. No one can say this is an acceptable state for a river this famous worldwide."

A few metres away, saline water – diverted from salt springs to protect the nearby lake – flowed into the foaming brown mess.

About 100 kilometres downstream, a Russian clad in a white robe immersed himself in the river at a site in Jordan where many Christians believe Jesus was baptized.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims take the plunge in the biblical river despite alarmingly high pollution.

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian communities along the lower Jordan River – about 340,000 people in all – dump raw sewage into the river.

Ironically, if the sewage stops flowing into the river – which Israel plans to ensure on its stretch – the damage could be even greater unless additional measures are taken to reduce the salinity of the water.

Friends of the Earth believes the solution lies in releasing huge amounts of fresh water into the river.

The Jordan once had a flow of 1.3 billion cubic metres a year, but now discharges only an estimated 20 million to 30 million cubic metres into the Dead Sea.

"A new study we commissioned reveals that we have lost at least 50 per cent of biodiversity in and around the river due to the near total diversion of fresh water, and that some 400 million cubic metres of water annually are urgently needed to be returned to the river to bring it back to life," said Munqeth Mehyar, Friends of the Earth’s Jordanian director.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

By Steven Stern, Special to CNN, April 22, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Advocacy video claims consumers are being scared into buying bottled water
• Bottled water industry claims it’s a smart choice to buy bottled water
• Critic Annie Leonard: Some bottled water is tap water; plastic bottles pollute
• Industry says bottled water containers are 100 percent recyclable

RELATED TOPICS

• Environmental Issues and Protection

(CNN) — "Carrying bottled water is on its way to being as cool as smoking while pregnant," claims the video "The Story of Bottled Water," which debuted on YouTube last month and garnered more than 450,000 views.

Is it true? Are liters of Evian now beyond the pale? Is Dasani déclassé? Has bottled water become the new eco-no-no?

Not quite yet. Though water sales have seen a recent downturn, plenty of folks are still paying for their daily hydration.

In fact, Annie Leonard’s video points out, Americans buy more than 500 million bottles of the stuff every week. It’s second only to soda in popularity, and some industry analysts believe that by next year water will become the most-purchased beverage in the country.

She wants to redirect the flow of water. The bottled water companies, the video insists, are "scaring us, seducing us, misleading us" into buying their products. Leonard, the writer and narrator, gives plenty of reasons why more and more people want to "take back the tap."

But the International Bottled Water Association accuses the video of "numerous false and misleading statements."

"’The Story of Bottled Water’ takes a very cynical view of the intelligence of consumers by depicting them as being dupes and victims of industry," said Tom Lauria, IBWA’s vice president of communications. "We think the opposite; that consumers are really quite thoughtful in selecting and enjoying a safe, healthy, convenient, calorie-free beverage that’s delicious, refreshing and a very smart drink choice."

However, Leonard argues that not only does tap water often beat out bottled in blind taste tests, but bottled is often less regulated than tap. Tap water is monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency, whose standards are generally stricter than the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees most bottled-water sales. 

Also, she says, tap water is certainly cheaper — thousands of times cheaper. Not to mention that some of the best-selling bottled waters — Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani among them — are, actually, nothing but filtered tap water. The companies themselves have spelled this out on labels after pressure from the consumer watchdog group Corporate Accountability International  

Add the fact that, according to Leonard, the amount of petroleum used to make water bottles every year is "enough to fuel a million cars" and that 80 percent of supposedly recyclable plastic bottles end up in landfills, you have the makings a ecological crusade.

IBWA counters on its website that bottled water containers are 100 percent recyclable and the bottles are "the nation’s most recycled plastic container."

To back up its claims, the organization put its own video "Good Stewards" on YouTube.

The bottle backlash has been bubbling up for a while.

Tapping into civic pride

What the video calls "one of the dumbest moves in advertising history" happened back in 2006. High-end brand Fiji started a campaign intended to tout its expensively-imported-from-the-tropics water. "The label says Fiji because it’s not bottled in Cleveland," read the copy in a series of glossy magazine ads. This did not sit well with the good people of Cleveland, Ohio, who were rather proud of their city’s tap water.

Cleveland Public Utilities director Julius Ciaccia had the local water tested against the pricey bottled stuff. Fiji water had 6.31 micrograms of arsenic per liter; the city tap had zero. The company disputed the findings, but the first major battle of the water wars left Fiji looking less than pure.

Thou shalt not bottle

Initial organized resistance to the bottled water industry came not from the usual urban green crowd, but from Christian groups. In 2006, members of the National Coalition of American Nuns pledged to avoid bottled water unless absolutely necessary.

Later that year, the United Church of Christ partnered with the National Council of Churches to produce a documentary, "Troubled Waters," about the ethics of water use, which aired on ABC. For many progressive people of faith, the very idea of privatizing water — profiting from a shared natural resource — is abhorrent. Bottled water is not just bad for the environment; to some, it’s a sin.

Restaurants follow suit

Since Perrier started marketing its mineral water as a luxury item in the 1970s, American restaurants have made a point of offering customers bottled water with their meals. But then famed California chef Alice Waters banned bottled water at her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in 2006. The next year she started serving patrons home-engineered sparkling water.

Other Bay Area restaurants followed suit, and the idea made its way to New York, where celebrity chef Mario Batali’s fanciest joint, Del Posto, banned the bottle. The idea became fashionable enough that a 2007 article in the online magazine Slate talked about the "reverse snob appeal" of tap water.

Bottle Bans

A growing number of schools have active anti-bottled water movements. Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, was probably the first college to ban all bottled water sales on campus, back at the beginning of 2009; the University of Portland did the same a few months ago. Similar bans are being discussed at Wesleyan, American University and Evergreen State College, among other schools.

Local governments are also getting into the act. San Francisco, California, Mayor Gavin Newsom was a pioneer, forbidding the use of city money to buy bottled water back in 2007. Seattle, Washington, followed suit the next year. During the recent Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver, British Columbia, started a campaign to encourage visitors to choose free local water over the bottle — even though Dasani bottler Coca-Cola was a sponsor of the Games.

Bottles under a microscope

Journalist Michael Pollan has turned into a hero — and a best-selling author — with his eco-conscious explorations of the food system; Morgan Spurlock found fame with his anti-fast food documentary "Super Size Me." Might bottled water be the new frontier in activist journalism?

Reporter Elizabeth Royte was ahead of the curve with her 2008 book "Bottlemania," a look at the people and economies behind the water industry.

Environmental scientist Peter Gleick has just published "Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water," which includes more than 100 bottled water recalls on everything from mold contamination to algae, bacteria, glass particles and — believe or not — crickets.

Meanwhile "Tapped," a new feature-length documentary by Stephanie Soechtig, has been screening the country with a "Get Off the Bottle" tour.

Greener bottles

Bottled water companies haven’t simply ignored all the criticism. The Nestle company, which bottles several brands of water, issued a study pointing out that water has a lower environmental impact than sports drinks and other beverages.

Both Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina have introduced new bottles that are supposedly "greener" than those used before. And Fiji maintains charitable and ecological campaigns to highlight the company’s awareness.

"Greenwashing" is the view of many in the environmental movement, who believe that this is all nothing but PR spin.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/homestyle/04/22/blacklash.bottled.water/index.html?hpt=C2

Press Release, Tel Aviv University,  April 21, 2010

TAU demonstrates that UV light can zap unwanted "life" in your drinking water and save taxpayer dollars

Does your drinking water smell foul, or are you worried that chemicals might be damaging your family’s health? Water treatment facilities currently use chlorine that produces carcinogenic by-products to keep your tapwater clean, but Tel Aviv University scientists have determined that ultra-violet (UV) light might be a better solution.

Dr. Hadas Mamane of Tel Aviv University‘s Porter School of Environmental Science and Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Eliora Ron of TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and their doctoral student Anat Lakretz of TAU’s School of Mechanical Engineering have recently determined the optimal UV wavelength for keeping water clean of microorganisms. Their approach could be used by water treatment plants as well as large-scale desalination facilities to destroy health-threatening microorganisms and make these facilities more efficient.

"UV light irradiation is being increasingly applied as a primary process for water disinfection," says Lakretz. "In our recent study, we’ve shown how this treatment can be optimized to kill free-swimming bacteria in the water — the kinds that also stick inside water distribution pipes and clog filters in desalination plants by producing bacterial biofilms."

This undesired "stickiness" of bacteria to surfaces is called "bio-fouling," which costs taxpayers and governments billions of dollars each year. "No one should be drinking microorganisms in their water. In addition, when microorganisms get stuck in the pores of the membranes of filters, they create serious problems," says Lakretz.

Not all UV light is created equal

Dr. Hadas Mamane

Irradiation could be used as a pre-treatment to inactivate suspended microorganisms in water, with the secondary goal of preventing bio-fouling. In their study, reported in the journal Biofouling, the researchers looked at targeted UV light wavelengths on the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, commonly found in drinking water.

The TAU researchers investigated UV wavelengths within between the 220-280 nanometre (nm) scale, and found that any wavelength between 254 and 270 nm effectively cleaned the water. Those in the same region were also best for keeping membranes clear of bacterial build-up in desalination plants, they reported. Special lamps that emit a multi-wavelength UV spectrum — more advanced than the single-wavelength UV lamps found in home water systems — were used.

The UV "zap" also prevented bacterial re-growth in the water after UV inactivation. "The best way to control and kill these micro-organisms was to damage their DNA," says Lakretz. "The damage that the UV light causes has no known negative effect on the water," she adds.

In addition, the prevention of biofilm formation by bacteria was UV dose-dependent. The researchers reported less bio-fouling when a bigger dose of UV light was applied to the water around the film.

A light to save lives

Anat Lakretz

The approach is even more helpful against parasites that aren’t adversely affected by chlorine treatment, such as Giarrdia and Cryptosporidium, two harmful parasites that cause severe diarrhea and can lead to death. Children, the elderly and those in developing nations are particularly vulnerable. "Sewage leakage into water supplies poses a big problem in terms of bacterial contamination, and is something UV light could remediate," says Lakretz.

Small amounts of chorine or other oxidants will still be necessary to make sure that residual bacteria don’t enter the water further along the distribution pipeline. But Lakretz says this new approach to disinfecting water while controlling biofouling can also reduce the amount of carcinogenic by-products that chlorine produces.

The Tel Aviv University team is part of the MAGNET consortium, an Israeli research-oriented project aimed at researching and commercializing “clean” technologies.

One of the car maker’s oldest and largest plants is being converted to house clean tech companies

Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen 11 Sep 2009

A Ford car plant which was recently shut down as part of cost savings by the car maker is being converted into a facility for renewable energy companies.

The facility in Wixom, Michigan, which at the height of production had about 5,000 workers, closed in 2007 with the loss of 1,000 jobs. The site will now be converted into a business park for a series of renewable energy companies, which the backers claim could generate about 4,000 jobs.

Ford said it has been working with energy storage system provider Xtreme Power and solar panel maker Clairvoyant Energy, who will be the first companies to take up residency in the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space. The two renewable energy providers have invested about $725m (£635m) to redevelop the site, with work expected to begin early next year and clean tech manufacturing expected to get underway in 2011.

“The Wixom Assembly Plant served Ford well for half a century and we wanted to ensure it served Michigan well into the future,” said Ford executive chairman Bill Ford. “Thanks to the collaborative efforts of two visionary energy companies and the leadership of state and local officials, we are transforming our Wixom facility into one of the largest renewable energy parks in the US. I can’t imagine a better way to use this facility – for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.”

Although Ford and the other companies involved discussed their role in developing the site, the backers also admit that state and local incentives were key to the project including refundable battery and photovoltaic tax credits, Michigan Economic Growth Authority employment tax credits, Renaissance Zone tax incentives and brownfield tax credits.

Xtreme Power systems, which develops technology to integrate renewable energy onto the electricity grid, will use more than one million square feet of the site.

“This move is significant on both ends of the spectrum,” said Carlos Coe, president and chief executive of Xtreme Power. “It underscores a significant shift toward the accelerated commercialisation and adoption of strategic renewable energy technologies, due in large part to the deepened commitment on the part of local, state and federal policymakers to support companies like ours.”

For its part, Clairvoyant Energy says it will have the capacity to produce more than 2.5 million solar panels a year at the Wixom site, which the company claims could equate to the need for one large coal plant every year.

“Clairvoyant Energy is fully energised to respond to the call to create the green jobs of tomorrow – today,” said David Hardee, chief executive of Clairvoyant Energy.

The Wixom Assembly Plant was one of Ford’s largest and oldest manufacturing sites, producing 6.6 million vehicles during its 50 years of operation. Production began in 1957 when Wixom became Lincoln Division’s new national headquarters and the sole producer of all vehicles for the Lincoln Division.

“Over the years, Wixom Assembly produced the Lincoln Continental, Town Car, LS, Mark VI, VII and VIII, as well as the Ford Thunderbird and Ford GT,” Ford said in a statement.

In May, Ford announced that it would invest $550m in converting a Michigan plant currently used to manufacture SUVs into a factory specialising in small, fuel-efficient cars that will also produce its first electric vehicle.

Documentary film maker Michael Moore covered the plight of sacked Michigan car workers in his 1989 film Roger and Me.

Permalink: http://www.businessgreen.com/2249323
This article was printed from the BusinessGreen.com web site

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

Farmers in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, where outdated irrigation systems causes water shortages despite the country’s above-average rainfall

BEIRUT, 10 September 2009 (IRIN) – The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.

Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political manoeuvring as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.

Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.

There will not be enough water for our generation or the next. We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years

Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms, measuring just 22sqkm, is Lebanese territory, though the UN has ruled it part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which lie just to the east, across water-rich Mount Hermon.

Both the Golan and Shebaa were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israelis say disengagement from Shebaa can only come under a peace deal with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan.

However, Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, argues there is more to Israel’s occupation of Shebaa than military-strategic concerns: “Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms has to do with control of its water.”

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006, has the liberation of Shebaa as one of its strategic objectives.

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

UN peacekeepers patrol the Blue Line, the boundary between Lebanon and Israel, near the water-rich Shebaa Farms

Water scarcity

Meeting the water needs of their rapidly growing populations has long been an existential challenge for the governments of the arid Middle East. Climate change is making that challenge more urgent and acute.

Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) all fall well below the internationally accepted threshold of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year (cmwpy). According to the IISD, Israel has natural renewable water resources of 265 cmwpy, Jordan 169, and OPT just 90. Only Lebanon and Syria have water surpluses, with Lebanon having a potential of 1,220 cmwpy and Syria 1,541.

Yet supply is dwindling rapidly. By 2025 water use in Israel is estimated to fall to 310 cmwpy, while the country’s own Environment Ministry has warned that water supply may fall by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2100.

River Jordan

The IISD report goes even further, warning that the River Jordan, which is the key supplier of water to Israel, Jordan and OPT, could shrink as much as 80 percent by the end of the century.

Such drastic scarcity makes securing water supplies vital. The River Jordan rises in Mount Hermon, fed by tributaries in the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberius, before continuing south where it forms the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and the West Bank. After 320km it empties into the Dead Sea.

Major tributaries of the river include the Hasbani, which flows into Israel from Lebanon, and the Banias, which flows from Syria. The River Dan, which also supplies the River Jordan, is the only river originating in Israel.

Photo: Hugh Macleod/IRIN

Women in the Shebaa Farms village of Kafr Shouba mourn the death of their son, a shepherd shot by Israeli soldiers in March 2006 after straying into the Blue Line area

Water wars

The absence of hydro-diplomacy reflects conflict in the region. In 1965, Syria and Lebanon began the construction of channels to divert the Banias and Hasbani, preventing the rivers flowing into Israel. The Israelis attacked the diversion works, the first in a series of moves that led to a regional war two years later.

In 2002, when the Lebanese constructed a pipeline on the River Wazzani intended to supply households in southern Lebanon with water, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the action a causus belli. In the July War of 2006, Israeli warplanes targeted southern Lebanon’s water network.

Bassam Jaber, a water expert at Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water, argues the Shebaa is critical to Israel’s water needs, “especially because fresh water is critical when all sources within Israel are salty. The flows from the area help to regulate the saltiness of Lake Tiberius”.

And it is not just the direct overland flow that the Shebaa provides Israel. According to the Lebanese Water Ministry’s Comair, 30-40 percent of the River Dan’s water flows into it through underground supplies originating in the Shebaa. “Israel is worried that if Lebanon gains control of the Shebaa, it can then control the flow to the Dan river,” said Comair.

Hydro-diplomacy

As one of only eight states to have ratified the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, Lebanon is calling on Israel to do the same.

“Israel is not a signatory to the relevant conventions on water, which is a big problem since they are at the centre of the issue of equitable use of water and reasonable sharing,” said Comair.

Israel has already shown that water can play a role in peacemaking. Its 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included a commitment to transfer 75 million cubic metres of water per year to Jordan in return for secure borders to the east.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water is now calling for a regional water basin authority for the River Jordan, which would include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and OPT. “How can you reach any agreements on the equitable sharing of international watercourses if there is no cooperation?” asked Comair.

Photo: Annasofie Flamand/IRIN

A view from southern Lebanon across the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, from where the Jordan River rises

Water solutions for all?

Not all are convinced Israel’s occupation of Shebaa is primarily about securing water.

“Water is no doubt one aspect of the socio-political conflict, but it is not the main driver,” said Mutasem el-Fadel, director of the Water Resources Center at the American University of Beirut.

He points to several projects currently being studied that could solve Israel’s water needs, without requiring continued occupation of the Shebaa, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project, the Mini-Peace pipeline from Turkey, wastewater reclamation plans and desalination projects.

“All combined they can be the water solution for all five countries in the area,” said el-Fadel.

But in the absence of hydro-diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon, the continued Israeli occupation of the Shebaa Farms will remain a key trigger to renewed conflict between the two countries.

“There will not be enough water for our generation or the next,” said Comair. “We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts – and in that order – within the next 20 years.”

hm/ed/cb Themes: (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Environment, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation [ENDS] Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86092

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

A growing desire to be energy independent — as a nation and individuals — is fueling the growth in demand for alternative energy

By Crystal McMorris, Midland Daily News,  August 6, 2009

    If you think roof-top windmills, solar-powered cottages and robust manufacturing in Michigan are the stuff of fairy tales, you weren’t at Wednesday’s Alternative Energy Forum.
    Leaders in several alternative energy fields updated about 100 people on the growing demand and emerging technologies for energy from wind, sun and the earth itself, and how the state is poised to benefit from public and private investment in "green energy."
    The forum, sponsored by the Sierra Club and Citizens Exploring Clean Energy, was arranged by University of Michigan senior Shawn Kinkema and held at Essexville Garber High School.
    "I believe Michigan has the tools to reinvent itself," said Kinkema, an environmental studies major from Essexville.
    Cedric G. Currin has been involved in this reinvention since the first time "alternative" energy was a hot topic in the 1970s. His company, Currin Corp., of Midland, makes solar panels which are used, mainly, to power to rural areas beyond the grid in national parks, for example, and isolated areas of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
    Currin said the solar power industry has grown about 40 percent per year for the past three years or so.
    "You can’t think of a greener way of getting power," Currin said, holding up one of his company’s solar panels, about the size of a record album. "It makes no noise. Nothing is moving. It is virtually free of any maintenance. And it lasts for a long, long time — 50 to 100 years."
    Solar power has its problems, however, Currin noted, which explains why so few homes in Michigan rely on solar power as their sole or primary energy source. Panels produce DC current, while our homes are set up for AC current, requiring conversion. Power needs to be stored, too, since the sun’s not always shining.
    And a solar system costing $20,000 to install will save only about $200 a year in electrical costs.
    But a growing desire to be energy independent — as a nation and individuals — is fueling the growth in demand for alternative energy, Currin noted. Concern for the environment is another driver, he said. Under the current energy system, each Michigan household causes five tons of carbon dioxide to be emitted from coal power plants, he said.

    "Some day, our grandchildren will ask us what we did to help," Currin said.
    Solar panels aren’t the only item people are putting on their roofs to tap clean power. Mini wind turbines are also turning up atop businesses and homes to turn brisk breezes into cheap kilowatts.
    Matt Hewitt, representing Affordable Green Energy of Essexville, expects demand for the small-scale wind turbines his company imports to grow as local governments adjust zoning laws to allow for them.
    "Our units are designed for home and business use," he said. "Small wind is different than its cousin, big wind. These are quieter than an air conditioning unit."
    Affordable Green Energy recently installed two small turbines for Bay Carbon on the edge of the Saginaw River in Bay City. The 5-kilowatt turbines sit atop 40-foot tall poles. Rooftop models for homes are only about 9.5 feet tall and 300 pounds and spin on a vertical axis that allows capture of the updraft from the roof, Hewitt said
    Such a unit would cost about $25,000 to install, and the company offers a variety of financing and leasing programs, he said.
    Pat Flory of Answer Heating and Cooling in Freeland discussed his company’s hottest green product: geothermal energy systems. Tubes run through the dirt beneath a home and yard to gather subterranean heat and use it to not only heat homes, but cool them, as well. In new construction, Flory said, such systems add about 33 percent to the cost of a high-end climate control system.
    "Heavy, damp clay soils are best," he said, though the company will work with whatever dirt is there as long as there’s a field of about 50 by 200 feet to work with. Geothermal technology, Flory said, has been around since the 14th Century.

Copyright © 2009 – Midland Daily News

Ilan Juran, an American-Israeli specialist in urban infrastructure, is seeing to it that the residents of Gaza will be equipped with the same sanitation and sewage systems that are enjoyed by their neighbors in their sister city on the coast.

By Karin Kloosterman , Israel 21c,August 06, 2009

The concept of achieving peace through pipes may have originated with Native Americans, but today, unbeknownst to most of us, Israelis and Gazans are seeking peace through sewage pipes.

It was a wild idea back in 1997, and perhaps it is even more unrealistic today. However, against the odds – and working around their governments – the mayors of the Israeli city of Ashkelon and the Palestinian Authority’s Gaza City have taken it upon themselves to try to cooperate with each other.

Ten years ago the vehicle was an educational project in high-tech. Today, they’re coming together over waste water.

By car, the two cities are only about a 20-minute drive away from each other. But in fact, they are worlds apart. Most people in both cities have never met one another.
The only thing they can be sure that they have in common is a beautiful coastline that follows the Mediterranean Sea from Lebanon all the way down to Egypt. But that shining sea is heavily polluted, since Gaza has no water infrastructure and its raw sewage pours directly into the sea.

Thanks to one man’s vision, the two cities will soon be working together. Ilan Juran, an American-Israeli specialist in urban infrastructure, is seeing to it that the residents of Gaza will be equipped with the same sanitation and sewage systems that are enjoyed by their neighbors in their sister city on the coast.

Partners in the hoped-for project include the mayors of Ashkelon and Gaza, the Israeli water company Mekorot, the Palestinian Water Authority, the United Nations and local municipalities.

All that remains is for Hamas to approve the plan

Ashkelon Mayor Benny Vaknin is working in full cooperation with Gaza Mayor Maged Abu Ramadan to put Juran’s vision to the test. Vaknin went to Brazil to present the idea to the XVII International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, a conference on Middle East peacemaking co-hosted by the United Nations’ Department of Public Information and the Brazilian government at the end of July.

The plan being presented in Brazil is to build a new recycling and water management system for Gaza City and its surrounding villages based on the existing Israeli system.

It was hoped that officials from both sides would sign the agreement in Rio de Janeiro, but despite permits to travel being arranged by the Israeli side, two days before the conference, Abu Ramadan and his officials were refused permission to travel by Hamas.

Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem did attend the event, however, and they signed their names on the water works plan, without the consent of Hamas officials.

Expected to cost more than $50 million, which Vaknin believes can be raised through donations; the plant will be modelled on the eight-year old water treatment facility in Ashkelon. Gaza will receive the blueprints and Israeli specialists.

The last hurdle, according to Galit Amzallag, director of international relations for the city of Ashkelon, will be to convince the Hamas government in Gaza to agree.

Polluted water in Gaza is making kids sick

"We will raise the money and Benny [Vaknin] will give the plans of our water system, and our specialists will assist them. The only problem is when will Hamas step aside . . . They are sabotaging it. It’s frustrating because we worked so hard," Amzallag sighs.

Since the most recent wave of conflict this past December, the people of Gaza have been bemoaning their city’s lack of sewage treatment plants.

Not only is the sewage polluting one of their few sources of recreation – the beach – but according to journalist Rami Almeghari who reports from Gaza, small lakes of sewage are building up and creating polluted lagoons that threaten peoples’ health. Kids are getting sick.

Ashkelon, a port city, that receives a sewage stream from Gaza, obviously has more than one interest in the Gaza facility, which would treat and divert the wastewater to be used for agriculture in Gaza.

But that shouldn’t detract from Ashkelon’s determination to go full steam ahead with the project, which in addition to clean water would also achieve improved quality of life for Gazans.

So far their Gaza counterparts have been very cooperative. When the new mayor of Gaza assumed office he readily understood the value of partnering with the Israeli side, says Amzallag, who has worked closely with Mayor Vaknin for over a decade.

Past success grants hope
Amzallag has been to Gaza City about 10 times, she says. The first time was for the joint Israel-Gaza high-tech training distance learning project.

That project rested on the cooperation between the late Mayor of Gaza City Awn al-Shawa and Mayor Vaknin. In the framework of that program teenage kids from both societies were taught computer and high-tech skills, which they in turn passed on to their younger peers. It worked well until the intifada hit.

Despite the uprising, Vaknin urged the Gaza mayor to join him on a fundraising mission to the World Bank and the United Nations in New York. A million dollars was raised and a study site complete with facilities was built in Germany. There was even enough money to pay for air fare for the participants.

With the means and neutral territory secured the project was saved and youths from Israel and Gaza learned high-tech together at month-long sessions in Germany.

Beyond water, there are other dreams for cooperation between the two cities. One is to build a railway between Egypt and Ashkelon with stops in Gaza. A second dream is to build a recycling center on the border between the two regions. If all flows well with the water project, perhaps shared railways and recycling will be a reality too.