| --> YouTube-Generated Transcript <-- |
| 0:00 | · | The Middle East... |
| 0:01 | · | A region where heat records are constantly being broken, |
| 0:04 | · | rivers are drying up, and lakes are disappearing from the map. |
| 0:07 | · | Once the cradle of civilization, |
| 0:09 | · | these lands today are suffocating under the weight of a water crisis. |
| 0:13 | · | In Iran, the president recently warned that "if it doesn't rain soon, we may have to evacuate |
| 0:19 | · | Tehran," marking one of the most alarming drought alerts in the nation's history. |
| 0:23 | · | Reservoirs are nearly empty, and groundwater resources are collapsing. |
| 0:27 | · | In Iraq, the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates don't even reach half of their former volume. |
| 0:33 | · | Agriculture is dying out, and people in Basra are being forced to drink salty water. |
| 0:37 | · | In Syria, after more than a decade of war, drought has deepened the food crisis even further. |
| 0:43 | · | Fields that once produced crops now produce only dust storms. |
| 0:48 | · | In Türkiye, as groundwater recedes in the Konya Plain, giant sinkholes are opening up, and the |
| 0:53 | · | country's two largest cities, Istanbul and Izmir, are getting closer to water scarcity every day. |
| 1:00 | · | Jordan has become one of the world's poorest |
| 1:02 | · | countries in terms of per capita water availability. |
| 1:05 | · | And in Yemen, water is now more valuable than oil. |
| 1:08 | · | Yet amid all this, there's one country in the region that seems almost immune to the crisis. |
| 1:13 | · | As if it has access to an endless water source. It turns seawater into drinking |
| 1:18 | · | water, recycles wastewater, and squeezes value out of every drop. |
| 1:23 | · | While the water crisis is destroying agriculture across the Middle East, |
| 1:27 | · | this country is farming right in the middle of the desert. |
| 1:30 | · | So efficiently that it's now among the world's leaders in |
| 1:33 | · | agricultural innovation. That country is Israel. |
| 1:39 | · | About 80% of Israel's drinking water now comes from desalinated seawater from the Mediterranean. |
| 1:45 | · | Most of the rest comes from recycled wastewater. Nearly 94% of all wastewater in the country is |
| 1:51 | · | collected and treated, and 87% of agricultural water comes from this recycled supply. |
| 1:57 | · | By far the highest rate in the world. |
| 1:59 | · | As a result, Israel has become one of the rare desert nations that's |
| 2:03 | · | fully self-sufficient in both drinking water and agriculture. |
| 2:06 | · | But how did Israel make this happen? |
| 2:09 | · | Half of Israel's territory has a semi-arid climate, |
| 2:12 | · | and its south is dominated by a desert climate. |
| 2:15 | · | Annual average rainfall is around ~800 mm in the north of the country, |
| 2:20 | · | ~400 mm in the eastern interior, and only ~20 mm in the south. |
| 2:25 | · | The country historically had to rely only on the Sea of |
| 2:28 | · | Galilee in the North and limited groundwater. |
| 2:30 | · | However, increasing population, intensive agricultural activities, and regional |
| 2:35 | · | drought cycles brought freshwater sources to critical levels in the late 20th century. |
| 2:40 | · | Thus, the desalination of seawater stopped being an "environmental choice" |
| 2:44 | · | and became an absolute "necessity" for the nation's survival and national security. |
| 2:49 | · | This necessity drove scientists and the |
| 2:51 | · | government to search for ways to remove the salt from seawater. |
| 2:54 | · | Israel's water desalination journey began in the 1960s with the chemist and |
| 2:58 | · | inventor Alexander Zarchin, who laid the foundations for today's mega-facilities. |
| 3:03 | · | Zarchin patented a process based on the principle of freezing seawater for purification in 1964. |
| 3:09 | · | In this method, seawater is frozen under vacuum, forming pure ice crystals. |
| 3:14 | · | These are then melted to produce fresh water, while the salt is removed in the process. |
| 3:18 | · | The technology wasn't very efficient, but it symbolized national determination. |
| 3:22 | · | Zarchin later founded IDE Technologies in 1965, |
| 3:26 | · | a company that would become one of the global leaders in desalination technology. |
| 3:30 | · | When reverse osmosis technology emerged, everything changed. |
| 3:34 | · | This process forces seawater through a semi-permeable membrane under high pressure. |
| 3:39 | · | The membrane lets water molecules pass but blocks salt and impurities. |
| 3:43 | · | Israel was among the first to adopt large-scale reverse osmosis systems to fight water scarcity. |
| 3:49 | · | The first seawater desalination plant opened in Eilat in 1997. |
| 3:54 | · | Though small in scale, it became a symbol of hope for the nation's water future. |
| 3:58 | · | In 2002, due to the effect of the drought, the Government approved the construction of |
| 4:03 | · | large seawater desalination plants along the Mediterranean coast. |
| 4:07 | · | The goal was to desalinate 305 million cubic meters of seawater annually by 2010, |
| 4:13 | · | and 500 million cubic meters annually by 2015. |
| 4:18 | · | Capacity rapidly increased with the Ashkelon plant, |
| 4:21 | · | which became operational in 2005, and the Hadera plant, which opened in 2009. |
| 4:27 | · | By the end of 2008, a total capacity of 130 million cubic meters per year was activated. |
| 4:33 | · | During this period, Israel not only built desalination plants but also |
| 4:38 | · | launched widespread water conservation campaigns. |
| 4:41 | · | By 2012, the Ashkelon plant alone was producing 15,000–16,000 cubic meters of water per hour, |
| 4:48 | · | covering around 15% of the nation's total demand. |
| 4:51 | · | Then, in 2013, the Sorek plant opened—one of the largest reverse osmosis facilities in the world, |
| 4:58 | · | capable of producing 234 million cubic meters of fresh water per year. |
| 5:03 | · | Today, Israel converts roughly 2 million cubic meters of seawater into fresh water every day. |
| 5:09 | · | Most of it goes to homes and cities, while the rest supports safe irrigation for agriculture. |
| 5:14 | · | As a result of this transformation, |
| 5:16 | · | the pressure on Israel's historical freshwater sources rapidly decreased. |
| 5:20 | · | Lake water usage, which was 513 million cubic meters annually in 2001–2002, |
| 5:26 | · | dropped to only 25 million cubic meters in 2018–2019. |
| 5:31 | · | In short, while most natural freshwater sources were preserved despite rising population and |
| 5:36 | · | agricultural demand, the new source of water in the taps became the desalination plants. |
| 5:41 | · | Thus, Israel never faces a problem with drinking water, even during major drought periods. |
| 5:47 | · | Additionally, with the Reverse National Water Carrier system, which became operational in 2023, |
| 5:53 | · | the excess desalinated water is pumped into the Sea of Galilee. |
| 5:57 | · | This helps stabilize the lake's water level and turns it into a reliable backup reservoir. |
| 6:02 | · | Of course, this water freedom also has a financial dimension. |
| 6:06 | · | Ashkelon was reported to cost $250 million, Hadera $425 million, and Sorek $450 million. |
| 6:15 | · | The cost of new facilities like Sorek 2 is estimated to be over $500 million. |
| 6:21 | · | Then there is the issue of transporting the desalinated water. |
| 6:24 | · | The purified water from some facilities is connected to the national transmission |
| 6:28 | · | network and pumped into storage and distribution grids across the country. |
| 6:32 | · | However, new pumping lines are also required. |
| 6:35 | · | After 2009, new east-west main water lines were constructed to connect |
| 6:39 | · | the coastal desalination plants with inland users. |
| 6:42 | · | Government reports and Mekorot documents state that this program |
| 6:45 | · | was built with an investment of approximately $500 million. |
| 6:49 | · | Beyond construction costs, the production cost per cubic meter of desalinated water also matters. |
| 6:55 | · | According to the Israel Water Authority, |
| 6:58 | · | large-scale seawater reverse osmosis plants produce water at around $0.54 per cubic meter. |
| 7:03 | · | That's more expensive than natural freshwater, which costs about $0.10 |
| 7:07 | · | per cubic meter, but still considered highly efficient by global standards. |
| 7:11 | · | In many countries, desalination costs range between $0.50 and $1.00 per cubic meter, |
| 7:17 | · | and in some cases, exceed $3.00. |
| 7:20 | · | But desalination is only half the story. |
| 7:22 | · | Israel is also a world leader in wastewater recycling. |
| 7:26 | · | According to the OECD, about 94% of wastewater in Israel is collected |
| 7:30 | · | and treated, and over 87% of that is reused—mostly for agriculture. |
| 7:35 | · | The Shafdan Wastewater Treatment Plant near Tel Aviv processes |
| 7:39 | · | about 370 million liters of sewage every day, |
| 7:42 | · | sending it through underground pipelines to irrigate farms in the dry Negev Desert. |
| 7:47 | · | With new regulations that came into force in 2010, the salinity and heavy |
| 7:51 | · | metal content of the wastewater to be used for irrigation were restricted. |
| 7:55 | · | Thus, the quality control of the treated water was tightened, |
| 7:58 | · | and the suitability of the recycled water for agriculture was monitored. |
| 8:02 | · | The abundance of reclaimed and desalinated water has completely changed Israel's agriculture. |
| 8:08 | · | The country meets a very large part of its food needs through local production |
| 8:11 | · | and achieves high yields in fruit, vegetable, and grain farming despite the desert climate. |
| 8:17 | · | Since most irrigation uses treated wastewater, |
| 8:20 | · | freshwater reserves are kept mainly for drinking purposes. |
| 8:23 | · | This balance secures reliable water supply both in cities and in rural areas. |
| 8:28 | · | Israel's experience demonstrates effective measures that can be |
| 8:32 | · | taken against large-scale water crises. |
| 8:34 | · | Converting large amounts of salt water into drinkable water by |
| 8:37 | · | building mega-facilities is a method that can set an example for other arid regions. |
| 8:42 | · | In the end, the lesson is clear: In arid regions like the Middle East, |
| 8:46 | · | the path to survival runs through innovation and investment. |
| 8:50 | · | Water is no longer just a natural resource, |
| 8:52 | · | it's a matter of national security. And Israel's desalination revolution shows |
| 8:57 | · | that with technology, even the ocean can become a country's drinking water. |
| 9:02 | · | Thank you for watching, see you in the next video! |
