The Middle East is experiencing ever-increasing water shortages. This region has been nicknamed “the thirst belt”, and its largely insufficient water resources are creating a great deal of tension, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. In Israel, there is an average of 280 cubic metres of water available per inhabitant per year, and in Jordan 145 cubic metres, as compared to 3,500 cubic metres in France. To compensate for this shortage, different techniques have been developed in the region: desalination of seawater and treatment of wastewater for agriculture in Israel, and desalination of brackish water in Jordan.
In Amman, freshwater reservoirs on the rooftops of all the buildings are filled up once a week.
Desalinating
Etienne Baudu, accompanied by RTL technician Loïc Rischmann, went to investigate these alternatives that are helping the Middle East to increase its “blue gold” resources. On the first day of the enquiry, Etienne Baudu visited the first desalination plant in Jordan designed by the French company Degrémont. A subsidiary of Suez Environnement, Degrémont is one of the world leaders in this field. The plant is located on the shores of the Dead Sea, southeast of Amman. It processes brackish water from three sources. An engineer explained to the RTL reporter that once the water has been desalinated, it is too pure and cannot be drunk. It must then be remineralised. The plant already produces 35 per cent of the fresh water consumed by the 2.5 million inhabitants of the capital city Amman. For now, desalination is the only way to “manufacture” fresh water.
Once the water is treated it is sent to the Jordan Valley where it is used for agriculture.
Reprocessing
If water needs to be produced, it is also essential that it be conserved: one way is by reprocessing wastewater and then using it for agriculture. While in Jordan, Etienne Baudu visited the ultramodern As Samra plant, an ecological plant that is practically autonomous in terms of energy: the mud extracted from wastewater is used to produce a biogas that runs the machinery. The As Samra plant already treats 40 per cent of Jordan’s wastewater; 100 per cent of this treated water is then redistributed to farmers in the Jordan Valley.
Alit Wiel-Shafran of Ben Gurion University is the designer of the “wetland unit” (in yellow in the photo). If it is patented, it could be marketed around the world. After passing through the “wetland”, the grey water (wastewater from individuals) can be used to water the garden.
Innovating
Etienne Baudu then headed to Israel, a country that is at the forefront in water management. He headed to the water research institute at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where hundreds of researchers are studying the question. He told RTL listeners about his visit to the fish farms, which are raising sea fish in the middle of the desert. The water from these fish farms is drawn from deep underground and is salty, which is why sea fish can be raised here. At one of the farms the water from the basins, enriched by fish waste, is then used to irrigate olive groves. The oil produced here is of high quality and is exported to Spain.
At a fish farm on the Mashabé Sade kibbutz, in the middle of the desert, water is drawn from 1,200 metres underground. It is salty.
Second season of Expédition RTL – Destinations and problems covered:
Iceland: renewable energies
Congo: the equatorial forest and saving the gorillas
United States: the technologies of the future
Costa Rica: economic development through ecology
Bangladesh: rising waters and climate refugees
Northern Europe: marine energies
Middle East: water shortages
The water from the basins, enriched by fish waste, is then used to irrigate olive groves. The oil that is produced is of high quality and is exported to Spain.