WATER TECHNOLOGY
by Thomas Graham
GROWING BANANAS IN TEXAS DESPITE WATER SCARCITY?
Water management skills and desalinization technology from Israel can one day help transform water scarcity in Texas to a reliable annual abundance.
H
elping global and Texas-based clients anticipate and respond to unexpected institutional crises is at the core of what our strategic communications agency does. Over the years we have seen issues of every shape and size, and one crisis we see on the horizon for Texas and Texas business is the lack of water—a looming scarcity we have not seen in decades.
Reservoirs of desalinated seawater in Eilat, Israel
Fortunately, a safe and prosperous future can be secured if we learn from the past, and a long-standing trading partner in the Middle East.
CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION Recently, I helped guide a technology-discovery trip to an ancient center of innovation and change—Israel—where major empires and trade routes have perennially crossed and clashed, and survival was dependent upon the availability of water. Even in their darkest moments—we were visiting near the ancient cities of Caesarea and Haifa—these civilizations still traded ideas and found common ground in which to advance. We toured the ancient site of Tel Megiddo, a strategically important and much contested area at an intersection of commerce and empires. While the city’s geography and fortifications provided an impenetrable defense against invaders, the lack of a water supply inside the walls would render it powerless to a sustained siege. As historian Robert S. Lemon wrote in his 1935 paper on the Megiddo water system, “A water supply inside the walls was very nearly as important as the wall itself.” To secure an internal water supply, a shaft 186 stairs deep and dug through limestone bedrock, connected via a 230-foot long tunnel to a nearby spring. The tunnel was cut on a slight incline so the water would flow
from the spring to the bottom of the shaft and the inhabitants could draw water while standing at the top. This great endeavor ensured the survival of the city by ensuring water supplies were available when the city was under siege. You may know this site by its more common name: Armageddon. It is upon this cultural foundation, this appreciation for the importance of water to the survival of a city and a nation, that the State of Israel has led a water revolution. It is a wonderment to the world that Israel, which nestles against one of the world’s greatest and driest desert landscapes is, nonetheless, a water superpower. Today, water conservation and management is part of daily life for everyday Israelis. From limiting leakage from water systems to farming efficiency, recycling waste water, desalinization, aquifer storage, and even oil and gas industry water efficiency, Israel is the global leader in water management. Our principal clients along the trip were industrial leaders from Texas who recognize water is critical to the economic
12 WILCO BUSINESS REVIEW | 2022 • ISSUE 3
