Israel’s efforts at water diplomacy make slow progress 

Al-Monitor Pro Members

David Rosenberg

Israeli reporter specializing in business, economics and politics

July 31, 2023

Israel is keen on leveraging its water technology and achievements in exploiting limited water resources to build ties with the Arab world. As part of that drive, the government plans to send a 1,000-person delegation to the COP-28 climate conference next November in Dubai. The Abraham Accords have opened opportunities for partnerships in water and climate tech generally between Israel and signatory countries. But while deals have been announced, follow-through has been slow. Political strains since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government took power are undercutting plans for collaboration and knowledge-sharing. However, water collaboration may now gain momentum as necessity increasingly outweighs politics. The July heat wave has pointed up the rapidly developing impact of climate change on Middle East and North African water supplies.

• ​​​​​Faced with severely limited water resources, Israel has developed an advanced infrastructure to leverage supplies and efficiently allocate them. It operates five major reverse osmosis desalination facilities, with a sixth due to open by 2025 and a seventh in planning. Together they supply 585 million cubic meters per year of potable water, half of the total. Close to 90 percent of wastewater is recycled. ​​ 
• Climate-tech start-ups have started to attract more investment, but the water-tech sector lags. The Startup Nation Policy Institute estimates there are a little over 100 companies in the sustainable-water solutions segment, led by TaKaDu (network management tools), WINT (pipeline leak detection) and DrizzleX (building water management tools). Israel also counts important older companies in the field, including IDE (desalination), Netafim and Rivulis (drip irrigation). In January, IDE opened a regional office in Dubai.  
• Several companies and ​non-governmental organizations (​NGOs​)​ are leading the Israeli water-diplomacy drive. State-owned Mekorot, which supplies most of Israel’s drinking water, has become the main conduit for collaboration. WaterEdge.IL, a state-backed NGO that brings together Israeli researchers, utilities and engineering companies, was formed in 2021 to, among other things, promote Israeli water innovation in the global marketplace.  
• On July 20 in Washington, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and US Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a joint five-year, $70 million initiative “to support climate-smart agriculture through innovative technologies and improved capture, storage, use, and protection of critical water resources in the Middle East and Africa.” 
• For COP 28 starting November 30, the foreign and environmental protection ministries announced on July 5 that Israel would send a delegation of 1,000 people and 100 companies to Dubai. “At the regional level, we see the conference in Dubai as an opportunity to establish relations with our near and far neighbors, in the framework of bilateral projects as well as in the framework of existing regional forums and those that we wish to promote,” Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman said. “The environment must not be hostage to political disagreements.” 
• The 2020 Abraham Accords have begun to lead to academic and business collaboration in the Gulf. Abu Dhabi agribusiness company Bayunah signed an agreement with Israel’s Watergen in 2020 to install freshwater-production technology in commercial and government buildings. Tel Aviv University and Baynunah formed a water research institute in Abu Dhabi in 2021. ​​​​Israel’s Ecoppia signed a deal the same year to sell its water-free solar-panel cleaning technology to Dubai. But progress has been limited due to intense competition from other governments and companies.  
• Morocco, another Abraham Accords signatory, has also begun doing deals with Israel. IDE Technologies has teamed up with Japan’s Mitsu and Morocco’s SGTM and Somagec to bid to build a desalination plant with a capacity of 300 million cubic meters. Last November, Morocco’s National Office of Electricity and Water (ONEE) signed an agreement with Mekorot to collaborate on desalination and recycling wastewater. 
• Unlike others in the region, Jordan relies directly on Israeli water supplies. Under their 1994 peace agreement, Israel agreed to supply Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of drinkable water annually. That was doubled in late 2021. Last November, the two countries affirmed plans to swap 200 million cubic meters per annum of desalinated water from Israel for electric power generated from a 600-megawatt capacity solar farm in Jordan. However, the controversial Red-Dead project to provide Jordan with drinking water via a canal between the Red and Dead seas was abandoned in 2021.  
• The need for solutions to growing water scarcity is becoming urgent throughout the ​Middle East and North Africa (​MENA​)​ region due to rising temperatures, growing populations and a history of resource mismanagement. UNICEF says average water availability in MENA is today ​as ​little as 1,200 cubic meters per person per year, far less than the worldwide average of 7,000. By 2050, two-thirds of the region’s countries will have as little as 200 cubic meters per capita.  
• As obtaining water grows more challenging, the problem threatens to become a source of political instability and even war. In May, clashes erupted between Iran and Afghanistan after Tehran accused the Taliban government of restricting access to water from their shared Helmand River. Egypt is anxious over the effect Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam will have on its Nile water supplies. In March, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that "all options are open." In December 2021, Iraq’s Water Resources Ministry threatened to sue Iran in international court, alleging that Iran was digging tunnels to divert water away from Iraq.  
• A July report by the Middle East Institute and Israel Climate Forum said the collaboration in water and the environment would be limited without a “breakthrough” on the Palestinian issue. “The composition and policies of Israel's current government pose additional challenges to Israel-Arab relations, and lead existing cooperation to slow down,” the report said. Israel often runs up against boycotts by unions, professional associations and academics in Arab countries. Other barriers include failure to implement ​agreements ​and red tape. Israeli ministries often lack regional experience or expertise.