Rethinking the sustainability of Israel's irrigation practices in the Drylands

Water Research
A Tal

Abstract

Broad utilization of drip irrigation technologies in Israel has contributed to the 1600 percent increase in the value of produce grown by local farmers over the past sixty-five years. The recycling of 86% of Israeli sewage now provides 50% of the country's irrigation water and is the second, idiosyncratic component in Israel's strategy to overcome water scarcity and maintain agriculture in a dryland region. The sustainability of these two practices is evaluated in light of decades of experience and ongoing research by the local scientific community. The review confirms the dramatic advantages of drip irrigation over time, relative to flood, furrow and sprinkler irrigation and its significance as a central component in agricultural production, especially under arid conditions. In contrast, empirical findings increasingly report damage to soil and to crops from salinization caused by irrigation with effluents. To be environmentally and agriculturally sustainable over time, wastewater reuse programs must ensure extremely high quality treated effluents and ultimately seek the desalinization of recycled sewage.

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Citations

Jan 21, 2021·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Ziyao AnSiyu Mou
Aug 28, 2020·Water Research·E Shtull-TrauringN Bernstein
Aug 10, 2021·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Saskia KeesstraZahra Kalantari

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