Israeli Technology To Quench The World’s Thirst

[JStone]

The Economist: Israeli Firms Offer Technology To Slake The World’s Thirst

MOSES parted the waters. Strauss aims merely to separate the waters from their yucky impurities. On May 18th in Shanghai Israel’s second-largest food and drinks firm will launch a high-tech purifier that not only filters water but also heats it to exactly the right temperature for making tea. Strauss has forged a joint venture with China’s Haier Group, the world’s biggest maker of white goods, to distribute it.

China is the perfect first market for such an appliance, says Rami Ronen, the boss of Strauss’s water arm. Chinese people drink a lot of tea, and their taps emit a lot of undrinkable gunge. At 4,490 yuan ($692) a pop the device is not cheap, but Chinese wallets are increasingly capacious.

Israel wants to become the Silicon Valley of water technology. The conditions are ripe: the country has plenty of scientists, an entrepreneurial culture and a desperate shortage of fresh water. Netafim, one of the world’s biggest “blue-tech” firms, got its start on a kibbutz in the Negev desert. Intrigued by an unusually large tree, an agronomist discovered that a cracked pipe fed droplets directly to its roots. After much experimentation the firm was founded in 1965 to sell what has become known as drip irrigation. Today it boasts annual sales of over $600m and a global workforce of 2,800.

Cont'd: Water technology: Striking the stone | The Economist