This ancient Arab irrigation system invented before Rome’s aqueduct
An ancient water management system engineered 3000 years ago is still keeping farms and oases green in the UAE and Oman.
water management
Living crop wall to showcase Israel’s agricultural genius at the 2015 Milan Expo
Israelis are renowned not only for their clean tech innovation, but also smart, savvy and water-efficient agriculture. This genius will be on display at the 2015 Milan Expo with a living pavilion designed by Knafo Klimor Architects.
Lush Green Terraces Top the Palestine Museum by Heneghan Peng
Dublin’s Heneghan Peng has designed a new museum for Palestine that is topped with a series of unfolding green terraces planted with vegetation that also grows in the surrounding hills.
Water Portraits – Making A Splash For Water Conservation (PHOTOS)
In a bid to highlight our water use and waste, photographer Peter Holmes has created a series of memorable portraits of water use in different countries. “Statistics about water consumption are difficult to comprehend and are un-relatable to everyday life – this project attempts to make water consumption visible in a meaningful way.” Well, that’s […]
Egypt’s Filthy Canals Are Breeding Disease and Discontent
Egypt’s network of canals are filthy, stagnant and have become dumping sites which breed disease and discontent Egypt may be synonymous with the majestic Nile but the network of canals that bring water from this important waterway to the surrounding agricultural lands are filthy, rancid and breeding grounds for rats and disease. According to a […]
Japan Wants Israel Clean Tech Experts to Rebuild Fukushima
Japan is seeking Israeli clean tech experts to help rebuild Fukushima, which was devastated by both an earthquake and a tsunami last year. The Japanese company in charge of rehabilitation recently sent a delegation to Israel looking for experts and entrepreneurs, especially in the fields of water management and recycling. According to the company’s liaison […]
Israel’s Mekorot Builds Global Connections Through Water
Israel’s national water company, Mekorot (who we’ve interviewed here), is expanding with projects across the globe. It will build and operate two desalination plants in Cyprus to supply almost half of the country’s drinking water. Also on the horizon is a $180 million deal to build a water filtering facility along the La Plata River […]
Morocco’s Berbers Had Water Management Sorted
International water management policies in Morocco have disrupted the Berber’s perfectly good and longstanding system. In 2009 I travelled to the High Atlas mountain region of Morocco to reach some friends that ran an eco-lodge in a very lonesome village with a wholesome lifestyle. The mother of Houssa, the owner of the eco-lodge, revealed the […]
Wudu is Islam’s sustainable water ritual
Wudhu (woo-dhoo) is a Muslim's ritual wash before any act of worship. Wudhu is a control switch, a health check, a reminder of liquid blessings. But how can wudhu make the Islamic faith even greener?
Sunday’s Green News Snippets
Get your weekly dose of green news snippets from the region It’s been another great week of green news coming from the Middle East. We hope you managed to catch our interview with Green Hajj expert Dr Husna Ahmed, our coverage of the quake-proof straw houses as well as Tafline’s time at the Desertec conference […]
7 Tips for a Sustainable Eid ul Adha Festival
Sacrifice is Muslims' way of giving back to community, the poor and God. But consumerism had turned the Eid-ul-Adha festival into another "Eid-mas". See our doable ideas on what you could be giving up after Hajj season and share your own.
Israeli Gov’t Denies Eye-Popping Disease that Kills Sacred Sea of Galilee Fish
Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture denies that a crazy eye-popping disease is killing a substantial population of fish in the Sea of Galilee. A bizarre disease is killing off a host of fish in the Sea of Galilee, including the St. Peter’s fish considered sacred because of its relevance to the biblical bread and fishes story. […]
Trouble In Paradise: Water Failure At Luxury Apartments In Dubai
Water trouble has forced residents at Dubai’s man-made Palm Island to wash in the sea and use toilets at shopping malls The sustainability and usefulness of Dubai’s artificial palm-shaped Island has been widely debated but I think a recent problem at one luxury complex has ironically helped raise awareness of how difficult life can be […]
Palestinian Environmentalist Talks About Water, Dams & Finding Peace
The Palestinian environmentalist Taleb Al Harithi was born in a small town near Hebron called Idna in 1955. After gaining his PhD in 1986, he became a professor for Earth and Environmental Sciences and now works as a consultant for environmental health in the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Hebron alongside his post as a […]
Iran Lacks Water Planning
The importance of recycling used water is understood more today by the Iranian environmental authorities, but converting theories to practice needs more investment. Mohammad J. Mohammadi Zadeh, the head of Iranian Environmental Protection Agency has declared how the water supplies of the country, which is among the arid and semi-arid lands, are wasted: “From 410 […]
Aflaj: Ancient Channels Keep Water Flowing In The Desert
Gulf States such as the UAE may now depend on expensive desalination technology for their water, but in the past they relied on more sustainable forms of water conservation In the arid landscapes of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, water has always been a huge issue. Whilst desalination which removes salt from water may […]
INTERVIEW: The Man Behind Palestine’s Green City Rawabi – Bashar Masri
We speak to Bashar Masri, the man behind Rawabi, Palestine’s first planned and green city. Since announcing plans to build Palestine’s first planned and green city back in 2008, the Rawabi project has faced its fair share of criticism. From political complications over using Jewish National Fund trees, concerns by environmentalists over the lack of […]
Israel Cleantech Intelligence: National Water Plan and 6 More Headlines
Israel’s new desalination plan, water cooperation in the Middle East, Solaris Synergy, and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Following reports that the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) only rose 16 centimeters in January, the Israeli government moved quickly earlier this week to pass an emergency plan that will increase desalination production capabilities. […]
Israel sends wrong message about desalination
Construction has begun in Israel on the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant. What about water conservation and recycling? SDL Desalination Ltd, a company owned by IDE Technologies and Hong Kong’s Hutchison Water, announced earlier this week that it has begun construction on the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plant. The plant, slated to be […]
Syria Launches Its First ‘Water-Scarcity Park’
A new park in drought-hit Syria showcases water-saving techniques Following five years of drought which has driven nearly half a million people away from drought-hit areas and put the country at risk of increasing desertification, Syria has inaugurated a water scarcity park to highlight the need to conserve dwindling water supplies.
500,000 Syrians Flee Drought-Stricken Zone
Corruption, poor management, and climate change have driven away nearly half a million Eastern Syrians and impoverished thousands more. Nearly half a million people have abandoned an area in Eastern Syria near the Euphrates River that has shriveled under a five year drought. Fierce temperatures and dwindling rainfall, as well as corruption and mismanagement of […]
Israel Cleantech Intelligence: TaKaDu and 8 More Headlines
Hydro-electric power, Better Place vehicles, endangered species and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Solaris Synergy and Leviathan were named Israel’s leading early stage environmental technologies at this year’s Clean Tech Open IDEAS Competition. CNN aired a feature on wastewater reclamation in Israel and IT-water management company TaKaDu raised an undisclosed sum […]
Yemen’s Water Crisis Could Worsen Security
The Federation of American Scientists urge Yemen to take up “science diplomacy” – otherwise existing security problems could get worse. Yemen looks like the bust of a flat-faced woman floating on the Gulf of Aden. Recently this harsh stretch of land, which shares its northwestern and most volatile border with Saudi Arabia and is flanked […]
Israel Cleantech Intelligence: BrightSource Energy and 9 More Headlines
A new clean tech center in Israel’s south, Israeli-Palestinian collaboration on clean water, investment trends and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Construction on a proposed wind farm in the Golan Heights is set to begin soon. BrightSource Energy received an unexpected shout out from US President Barack Obama and SolarEdge raised […]
Israel Cleantech Intelligence: Israeli Bees and 7 More Headlines
Pollution off Israel’s coast, investments in water tech, a green future and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. During the week of September 1, 2010, water management tech company TaKaDu was named World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011. The price of lithium batteries has plunged, which is good news for Better Place and […]