Our trip to the Israel water conference

While the headlines in recent weeks unfortunately have been filled with stories of terrorism, the dynamism of Israel continues unabated.  Indeed, someone interested in first class wine might go to France.  In fine watches, Switzerland.  And in water technology—for the blend of optimism, creativity and innovation that has allowed water to flow from the desert and rocks—they would, and do, turn to Israel.  That’s what Governor Jerry Brown did when he signed the California Memorandum of Understanding with Prime Minister Netanyahu in March 2014 for increased efforts to address California’s drought.  And that’s what we did when we travelled this month to the biennial Water Technology and Environmental Control (WATEC) conference in Israel with our clients from the Princeton Energy Group.  

Hosted by Israel’s central water authority, the WATEC conference featured leaders from around the world.  One of the first plenary speakers was H.E. William Samoei Ruto, who is the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya.  He was funny and engaging.  More to the point, he emphasized his country’s commitment to developing its water infrastructure and its curiosity as to how Israel managed to overcome drought conditions in 2006 to become a net water exporter in 2015.  His serious interest in Israel water technology was underscored by his personal presence at WATEC. 

In fact, looking at the name badges throughout the conference, we saw people from Botswana, Kenya, Greece, Lithuania, Tanzania, Vietnam, China, Albania, Argentina, Poland, Brazil, Peru, Zimbabwe, Czech Republic and Belgium.  We understand that attendees from many other countries also came to Israel to gain from its water technology.  In the last decade alone, Israel has made groundbreaking strides in desalination, water reclamation, irrigation, and river purification, and has developed the world’s most advanced leak detection methods to prevent water loss from infrastructure disrepair.      

One speaker at WATEC’s opening session made the point that technology—and Israel’s particular strength in technology—is not just about an actual invention or process, but is a dynamic mindset and culture of inventiveness to solve new problems.  When we spent a half-day visit at the world’s largest seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, the Sorek Project, built by IDE Technologies, we heard about the competitive bid process to build the plant, and how the engineers had to keep finding ways to reduce energy costs and to constantly improve the technology even while the bid process was occurring.  

That’s really what technology is.  It’s not as much a catalogue of answers as it is about ways of thinking and dynamic approaches to problem solving to address emerging problems and technological opportunities.   

Former Israel President Shimon Peres carried this theme further when he presented at the opening session of the conference.  He said: “In Israel it is not the land that blesses the people with its natural resources or bounty, but the people who bless the land.”  The agriculture in Israel, particularly in the Negev, developed because of technological innovation rather than through the particular richness of the soil. 

At times during his presentation he became instructive, saying: “People ask me how to stay young. I tell them to make a list of everything they have accomplished and a separate list of everything they still want to accomplish—if the second list is longer than the first, you’re young.”  He also made the point that certain things which we have been so sure are, and will be, always available to us like water and like clean air, are becoming scarce.  The important thing, he said, is not what we know, and not even what we don’t know and can find out, but what we don’t know because it hasn’t happened yet and that will change everything. 

The technology business leaders with whom we met in Israel largely held this perspective in common.  They displayed inventiveness and dynamism, looking for a “game changer” to solve problems that don’t yet have good solutions.  They conveyed the sense that they cannot solve all of the problems in the world, but they can solve some of them, and they can do this very well. 

This dynamism and technology might help us to address our own drought and water scarcity in California.  Indeed, the “Israel-California Green-Tech Partnership Kick-Off” that we attended at Google in Tel Aviv during the WATEC conference was a terrific forum for a candid exchange of ideas among a number of smart and active people to create a market bridge between Israel and California.  With the technological creativity from Israel and Governor Brown’s commitment to address the California water crisis through increased partnership with Israel, there ought to be substantial action taken before the next WATEC conference in two years. 

George Caplan and Paul Gelb practice law with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.  Mr. Caplan is a past President, Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.  Mr. Gelb is an active member of and public lecturer in the Los Angeles Jewish community.