It is now India's responsibility to provide the right platform and allocate necessary resources to expedite the implementation of water projects
Towards the actualisation of the Indian Prime Minister's envisaged Water Mission, it is argued that an autonomous "Institute of Indo-Israel Strategic Partnership in Water" be given official sanction at the earliest. It is believed that this proposed institute can be the catalyst in the achievement of India's water-security objectives.
In the face of rising water scarcity, the issue of water security has become a focus area. Pollution, climate change, population growth, and groundwater depletion are putting pressure on water resources making water management a big challenge. And to overcome this, the country requires suitable technological interventions. India, by going for a projected institutionised water-partnership with Israel, can attain this objective.
There are areas where the prospects of Indo-Israel water cooperation are high. These include the areas of water conservation, water recycling, integrated water infrastructures in the field of irrigation, advance transportation and networking models for drinking water, advance water practices, and building a sustainable water eco-system. These are some of the critical areas which demand promising research and innovation.
Restoration of Water Ecosystem: Freshwater ecosystems are subject to multiple anthropogenic threats, and restoration initiatives are important to break the impending ecological crisis and protect the biodiversity for the future generation to sustain. A modern water infrastructure system is needed to contribute to the enhancement and restoration of the water ecosystem.
Critical desalination initiative (CDI): There is a pressing need for curtailing the pressure on freshwater reserve; and as an alternative, it requires harnessing water through the desalination process. Sea water harvesting, ifcatalysed and then channelised for the regular household, industrial and agricultural usages,can help in minimisingscarcity fears.India, with a 7,500-kilometre coastline, has a huge potential for CDI. It is envisioned that CDI can enhance the green water inventiveness, thus fulfilling the impending water deficiencies.
The field of water management necessitates things like domain knowledge, precise technologies, and the already-implementing confrère of efficacious proficiencies. Israel has excellent technological solutions and innovations in the field and has emerged as the true world leader in the field of water management and water recycling. It generates state-of-the-art water infrastructure and alternative sources of water and India, by going in for a strategic water partnership, can greatly benefit from Israel's best water practices.
Areas requiring technological intervention which Israel can provide include water efficiency, water assessment, monitoring, measurement and management, wastewater treatment, water recycle and reuse, groundwater assessment and recharge, real-time detection and situational awareness, accurate water flow data, drip irrigation, and precise agro-water solutions.
While, the Bundelkhand water management project, the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project (IIAP), and the Israeli-given drip irrigation technology are some of the starters, Israel is keen to further its offer for large-scale solution to water problems in India. When Union Minister of Jal Shakti visited Israel to attend the "WATEC" event, it was realised that with necessary stimulating incentives from the Indian government, Israel's expertise can becomethe effective intervention into India's several water projects.
Israel has been in the process of identifying joint areas of undertakings and is fairly leading the water solution projects in India. It is now India's responsibility to provide the right platform and allocate necessary resources so that the incubation as well as the implementation of large-scale Indo-Israel water projects becomes quicker.
Although India and Israel have established cooperation channels and joint programmes of implementation, such collaboration has to be intensive. Meanwhile, the transfer and acquisition of incubated models and technologies must be institutionally streamlined. The model National Water Scheme and Water Infrastructure Grid are the envisioned water programmes that require close attention. This will only become possible when state-of-the-art research facilities are set up under an autonomous institutional body.
India, having a huge set of diverse topographic settings and water bodies, can provide 'ample possibility of incubation' for the model water projects. In the long run, such experiments and models can be the answer to the hastily approaching water crises in India as well as across the globe at large.
(The writer is an ICSSR Post-Doctoral Fellow, School of National Security Studies,Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.)
