THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, August 29, 1975 9

Water for the Garden of Israel

A key to Israel's future may well be a plastic membrane of
ultra-thin porous film The Weizmann Institute of Science
developed for the purification of salt water into fresh water.

ISRAEL'S WATER SITUATION: CURRENT AND PROJECTED

(Each unit Is 1,000,000 cubic meters; a cubic meter is 264 gallons)

Year

WATER RESERVES SEEN DWINDLING DANGEROUSLY

Jerusalem Post, June 23, 1975

IL 7.000.000,000 • NEEDED TO FIND MORE WATER

Approximately $1.150.000.000

Jerusalem Post..June 24. 1975

Israel needs considerable amounts of additional water
now, and as the country grows it will need even more.
Whether it gets this water—a problem that has plagued
Jews in the Holy Land from the days of Abraham and
Moses to the present—will be a critical factor in Israel's
struggle for survival.
The difference between 4000 years ago and now lies in
the existence of an Israeli science that today possesses
much of the insight, experience, personnel, technical know-
how, facilities and tools necessary to grapple with—and
hopefully to solve at long last—this problem of water.
The Weizmann Institute of Science from its earliest days
has pioneered in helping to secure the water Israel requires
for its growing industry, growing agriculture, growing
population.
An acknowledged world leader in water sciences, the
Weizmann Institute needs substantial support at this time to
bring to fruition its comprehensive program, begun in the
1940s, to convert the desert into a garden.
In fact, the Weizmann Institute in the course of mapping
Israel's natural ground sources, occasionally probing to
depths of 3000 feet beneath the desert, did discover water
in the Negev. Today these sources provide the country with
two-thirds of its total supply.
From the 1950s into the 1960s, as a result of the Insti-
tute's scientific leadership, Israel's immediate water needs
were met by a network of national and regional systems
that, among other features, helped to transport water from
the Galilee to the Negev and stored water accumulated in
the winter for use during the rest of the year.
After determining what are Israel's natural water re-
sources, Weizmann Institute plays the major role in devel-
oping techniques and procedures to make maximum use of
these resources, including deep drilling beneath the Negev
and Sinai for readily useable sweet water reservoirs. Over-
looking nothing, since water is a scarce and precious com-
modity, the Institute has moved along three broad fronts:

Water has always been a problem in the Holy Land.
4000 years ago Abraham's first concern upon arriving in
the land of Canaan, bringing along much of his wealth in
livestock, was securing essential water resources. The
search for water in the arid Negev by Abraham and his son
Isaac, and the difficulties in obtaining watering rights from
the indigenous. often hostile, population, is a significant part
of Biblical history and is described in the Book of Genesis.
500 years later Moses had to devote his attention to this
problem. The Jews stood once more on the borders of the
Holy Land after centuries of exile in Egypt.
'Moses made Israel move from their-camp at the Sea of
Reeds and they made for the wilderness of Shur where they
travelled for three days without finding water. They reached
Marah but the water there wes so bitter they could not drink
it; this is why the place is called Marah . . . So they came to
Ellyn where twelve water springs were and seventy palm
trees; and there they pitched their camp beside the water.'

(Exodus 15:22-27)

1974
1985
2000

Amount Received

Amount Used

Deficit

1450
1700

1600
1950
2400-3000

150
250

(a) The projected needs of the 1970s already have outpaced
expectations. In 10 years, agricultural water consumption
rose 25%, domestic consumption 60%. and industrial con-
sumption almost 100%.
(b) While comprehensive programs are expected to result in
substantial increases in water supplies, it is estimated that
consumption will continue to increase at a faster rate; in
effect, further worsening the crisis.
(c) The difference between water used and water received is
secured now by 'draining off' the natural subterranean reser-

voirs in which water has been stored since time immemorial,
perhaps even from the Ice Age.
But this is a dangerous procedure and can't be continued
indefinitely. When underground water levels fall too low, salt
water from the sea creeps in. This flow is extremely difficult
to stop and may damage the water stores forever.

(a) 'Capturing' rainfall. The natural resources depend in
the final analysis upon the limited winter rains. Until recent
times these rains surged wastefully down the gullies into the
sea. Now a considerable amount is trapped in reservoirs.
(b) Reducing leakage—evaporation, seepage and surface
run-off—by modern and ingenious irrigation techniques.
While these savings are comparatively minor in terms of
total needs, every drop counts.
(c) Fighting pollution, natural and man-made—which
complicates the problem—the Weizmann Institute is en-
gaged in major programs to stop, before it is too late, the
contamination of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) stem-
ming from intensive agriculture in the Hula Valley and re-
cent industrialization in the Upper Galilee. This is Israel's
major fresh water reservoir and her only natural sweet
water lake. The Institute is also coping with pollution in the
fertile coastal plains.
All these measures, however, cannot provide enough
water to keep pace with Israel's increasing needs, and the
search for supplementary water resources becomes more
pressing with each passing day.
Failure in this quest eventually would force Israel to cur-
tail production of wheat, barley, sugar, beets and cotton.
and even citrus fruit, long the country's leading export.

The water problem is becoming increasingly severe in many
parts of the world, and Weizmann Institute scientists have
been chosen to lead an international team to develop a plan

to deal with it.
The Institute's know-how has been placed at the disposal
of other developing nations, such as Brazil with on-the-spot
assistance, and Botswana by helping to explore for sweet
water supplies beneath the vast Kalahari Desert.

'Water for the Garden of Israel' is the second in a series of
presentations describing activities at the Institute.
Future presentations will deal with the Institute's role in
such areas as the fight against cancer, population control,
developing Israeli industry, predicting earthquakes and killer
waves, creating new sources of energy, training scientists
and promoting science education, the war against heroin
addiction, genetic diseases, brain and heart research.

The Weizmann Institute water program encompasses a
broad spectrum of fundamental inquiry and practical re-

search in many fields of scientific endeavor.
It runs the gamut from the identification of fossil water
pockets to the study of matter for possible application in the
conversion of sea water. It ranges from the studies of the
natural water cycle to research in the flow of fluids and salts
through the human kidney.
In Institute departments and laboratories, many scores of
outstanding scientists, backed by highly trained technical
support personnel, conduct extensive research requiring spe-
cial techniques and equipment to contribute new scientific
knowledge to promote the well-being of mankind and the

development of Israel.
The institute's pre-eminent status stems from 'bold inqui-
ries into fundamental questions of mathematics. physics,
chemistry and biology by first-rate scientists . . . Many Weiz-
mann scientists have world-wide stature as highly original
investigators and brilliant expositors of their work.'

With generous philanthropic support from the United
States and other countries throughout the world, the Weiz-
mann Institute of Science, in Rehovoth, is currently engaged

in more than 400 research projects.

.

More than 80% of Israel's water is used in cultivation. The
country's industry would also be seriously crippled.
No one suggests the economy will dry up and die of
thirst, but Israel's ultimate survival does depend on how
much more water it can obtain how fast.
The answer to Israel's water shortage may lie in the Med-
iterranean and the Gulf of Eilat. Of the various approaches
under intensive study, particularly at the Weizmann Insti-
tute, the most promising appears to be desalination: that is.
the purification or conversion of sea water into fresh water
by extracting the salt from it.
This concept has evolved from more than 25 years of
trail-blazing achievements to find water supplies for Israel
that have earned the Weizmann Institute world eminence in
the field of hydrology.
Here's where the Institute's 'key' fits in.
The plastic membrane allows water. but not salt, to pass
through by a process known as reverse osmosis. It is
judged technically superior to the classical distillation or
boiling-off process.
This method has several advantages. It is significantly
more economical than other possible procedures. The
membranes, the critical element in the operation, are
strong, stable, light and easily 'recharged' for extremely
long term service, thereby simplifying the construction of
water treatment systems and drastically reducing costs.
Moreover, this membrane, in different forms, may unlock
other sources of usable and re-usable water. Weizmann In-
stitute now is also experimenting with a variety of special
custom-built membrane systems to purify urban waters pol-
luted by industrial and municipal effluents: desalinate pools
of brackish water found in abundance in the Negev: and
soften 'hard' water for improved taste.
The prospects are bright indeed that Israel will develop
the resources for the plentiful, clean and inexpensive water
it needs to bloom. But many scientific roads still must be
travelled before these prospects are realized.
They require complex and coordinated effort by many
gifted and dedicated people in different scientific fields. To
get on with the job, Weizmann Institute depends on under-
standing, interest and continuing generous support.
The goal now looming up on the horizon is the Garden
of Israel.

`I feel sure that science will bring to this land both peace and
a renewal of its youth, creating here the springs of a new
spiritual and material life. I speak of science for its own sake
and applied science.'
CHAIM WEIZMANN

am am am my mos

Imo ow am ow am am ma am

-------

-

Paul Borman. Chairman, Detroit Committee
American Committee for Weizmann Institute of Science
18718 Borman Avenue
Detroit. Michigan 48228

0 Please tell me how I can support the Weizmann Institute projects to help provide Israt with adequate water
resources

0 I wish to learn more about the American Committee program to help insure the uninterrupted continuation of
Weizmann Institute's vital scientific undertakings

NAME

ADDRESS

TEL

CITY/STATE/ZIP
Contributions to the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science are tax-deductible.
Israel Bonds are accepted.

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