Israel Africa | Business Guide | 2020

finance schemes, they become dependent on private companies and philanthropic organizations that gain disproportionate power in over-populated African cities. Providing solutions in such a set-up is the objective of organizations and entrepreneurs worldwide and Israel, a water-tech nation, is a leader in this effort. An Israeli Drop Of Water Even though predominantly a desert, Israel has found many ways of making water available, through desalination, for agricultural use and even for drinking. Today, most of Israel’s freshwater comes from its five desalination facilities. The innovative Israeli water technology ecosystem comprises no less than 180 companies, according to recent SNC data. Theoretically, these technologies could be implemented in eachAfrican country, putting an end to the continent’s perennial water shortage. But desalination, for a start, has its limitations: it is expensive, consumes a lot of electricity, requires an understanding of high-technology, needs access to the sea and must operate over a flat geographical area. Israeli water-tech solutions come in all levels and sizes. Many advanced solutions for smart watering of agricultural areas are already in action in Africa. Best known among them is the famous water irrigation system, aimed to level and control water consumption in agriculture. But there is more to come. There is also need to improve the quality of drinking water by using and recyclingwater filters, developing easy access or biological solutions for purifying and re-using drain water, improving existing rainwater harvesting systems, which, in many African villages, have no filtering. Macro managing the water system requires a different level of R&D: some of the innovations are uploading a municipal water data to the ‘cloud`, enabling remote cellular control of water systems (compared topreviously used radio communication), realtime monitoring of a city's water pipes, setting up alarm systems when sewage leaks in, analyzing specific water infrastructure parameters to discover anomalies, andmore. Lastly, butmost fascinating, is the sub-sector of atmospheric water sourcing, or producingwater out of thin air, literally. All in all, it is no surprise that Israeli exports of its water technology total $ 2 Bannually, and that Africa is amajor partner in this technological - and humanitarian - journey. Israeli Water-Tech Sub-Sectors (by Number Of Companies) Water &Wastewater Treatment – 89 ● Irrigation - 52 Water Systems - 41 ● Water Network Management - 21 Desalination - 17 ● Domestic Use - 13 ● Water Quality Detection – 11 Source: SNC 33