Can Israel's 'Silicon Wadi' Solve California's Drought?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 3/20/2014 09:23:00 AM
I almost forgot about this one. A few weeks ago, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu was in California promoting his nation's high-technology industries. Those in the know of global high-technology industries should be well aware of the country's burgeoning tech sector known as "Silicon Wadi" [1, 2] as a pun on California's Silicon Valley. Yes, its progress has been hampered by blowback from its nation's political stances, but its younger entrepreneurs are trying to depoliticize their activities by distancing themselves from the industry's military roots.

At any rate, one of the things the "copycat" Israeli effort may outdo the original in is water management. Having declared an emergency this year, California is in dire straits. Is there any way of solving this problem short of depopulating California? Unfortunately, Silicon Valley has been minimally interested in addressing the water shortage plaguing their home state. However, Israelis have long been at the forefront of addressing this issue with, er, less-than-friendly neighbors and desert conditions in about half its territory.

And so it was that grizzled veteran California Governor Jerry Brown struck up a partnership with Netanyahu to utilize Israeli know-how in combating drought:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to help California weather its drought with water conservation and desalination techniques pioneered by his country’s scientists. Netanyahu signed a memorandum of understanding for joint technology development yesterday with California Governor Jerry Brown in a tour through Silicon Valley that also took him to Apple Inc. and other computer-related companies.

“California, I hear, has a big water problem,” Netanyahu said in an interview yesterday on Bloomberg Television. “We in Israel don’t have a water problem. We use technology to solve it, in recycling, in desalination, in deep drip irrigation and so on. And these technologies could be used by the state of California to eliminate its chronic drought problem.” 
The popular traffic app Waze has put "Silicon Wadi" on the minds of many others. What if Israeli technology could solve California's water woes? That would put its name recognition over the moon methinks.