How can Israel and The Netherlands capitalize the smart water tech revolution?

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Startup Nation

10 min readMar 29, 2017

For the third year in a row smart water tops the Global Opportunity Report as the most impactful sector for actionable opportunities. Smart water technology enables consumers to use water in a more sustainable manner without increased effort. This means that smart water pipes and meters will make sustainable water choices for the consumer. Understanding the potential of this possibility and fully capitalizing it, will provide a huge market in regard to delivering crucial services to the community. The report states that by 2021 the smart water tech market will be worth 20.10 billion USD up from 8.46 billion USD in 2016[1]. As the Netherlands and Israel are both known to be strong innovative water hubs it would be interesting to explore the possibilities of the bilateral added value in this sector. This article will elaborate on the above named water trends, threats, how Israel & The Netherlands can support and are contributing to these developments, how this aligns with international water opportunities and their joint statement.

The global opportunities report for 2017 is ranking business opportunities worldwide and states that digitalization of the sector is continuing and will remain relevant. In addition, many articles nowadays are screaming headlines with technologies like cyber security, blockchain and m-learning. These articles support the findings of the global market report that indicates that these technologies are best invested in the Smart Water Tech and providing us with best market opportunity crossovers from the IoT and High-Tech sector. When taking into account the challenge of global warming that world leaders are facing, water is becoming a more crucial and critical topic. Whereas Africa and America[2] are experiencing serious droughts, Europeans are fighting droughts and rising (sea) water levels[3]. Furthermore, the business sector should adopt the opportunities of IoT, but at the same time, it needs to consider the threats the IoT trend is bringing to the sector[4]. In order to deal with these threats it is essential to consider blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as they both hold great value to become the backbone of the smart tech water opportunities and reshape the sector when it is properly capitalized[5].

A report (PDF) by International Rivers, an organization focused on international river conservation, states that the world water crisis is not a problem of scarcity but one of mismanagement[6]. Blockchain, which allows the users to use a more decentralized and self-reliant system rather than rely on the trust between the various parties involved in the transactions[7], it could give the sector a lot more transparency and control. Whereas AI can play a pivotal role in making our society’s water infrastructure more robust, more profitable, and ultimately, safer. Both blockchain and AI could be integrated in autonomous agriculture sensors to control water flow in fields[8] or manage other water assets[9]. Another good example is AI’s forecasting algorithms that can integrate system data to predict the useful lifetime of a machine or a cyber-attack[10]. This opportunity employs machine-learning to drive a new market that will secure our most vital infrastructure in the digital economy and a sustainable choice. There are two important drivers of this market opportunity: 1) intelligent automation in general where systems take over decision making from humans and 2) the lack of a sufficient number of people with the right skill-set drives a need for less people-intensive approaches. The artificial intelligence market is expected to be worth 16.06 billion USD by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 62.9 percent from 2016 to 2022[11].

Israel

When looking at Israel’s water sector, one must start by mentioning that Israel is ranked as number 8 on the list of countries that experience most water stress[12]. In order to combat these problems the country heavily invests in its innovative capabilities and technologies many have proven success nationally and internationally in countries such as he US, China and India[13].

Water scarcity has been of concern to Israel since its establishment in 1948. A tenfold increase in population coupled with extensive industrial growth and economic development have placed a continuous and growing demand on Israel’s limited water resources. Climatic fluctuations accentuated by periodic drought, affect water availability while sectoral pressures from urban development, heavy industries and agricultural fertilizers and pesticides degrade available water quality[14]. Having an advanced public and private research and development sector helps Israel to thrive at technological and economical solutions in the fields of water production and water treatment (e.g., recycling and treatment facilities). In addition to technologically intensive solutions, significant efforts are being made — according to sustainable development guidelines and legislation — to maximize the utilization of existing water resources. This entails improved public water conservation and the restructuring of water rates that reflect water supply costs, including scarcity on the one hand, and upgrading sewage treatment on the other. To maximize safety and minimize environmental risk from wastewater reuse, water quality standards are being upgraded (approved by the Water Authority council in 2007) for both agricultural use of treated wastewater and its discharge into aquifers, streams and rivers[15].

Projects like irrigation, water recycling and desalination are of great value to the country. However, besides these strengths, Israel has also become a frontrunner in developing high-tech IoT solutions such as blockchain[16], m-learning software and artificial intelligence[17] which are of great value to capitalize the ranked smart water tech market[18]. Especially since fintech and cybersecurity are the strongest fields within the Israeli startup community[19] , which we can see in the trend of Israeli VC’s backing numerous startups across a variety of industries, including companies such as Dynamic Yield , SolarChange and Knowmail, that are driving innovation in these areas[20]. Due to this aspect, and looking at the trend of sectoral integration and cross overs, it is interesting to learn more from Israel’s experience and strategy in these fields and how they are adapting them to the water sector.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the twenty largest economies in the world and is a leading global knowledge economy. The Dutch have a longstanding history of invention, exploring the oceans of the world and trading with other countries[21]. With more than half of the country at or below sea level, it is no surprise that the Netherlands became an expert in water: World-renowned for fighting back water the Dutch began using innovative wastewater treatment techniques in the 1970s. Some 99.9 per cent of Dutch households have access to clean, chlorine-free drinking water. Additionally, the level of recycling industrial wastewater is high, and the water is of sufficient quality to be used in the food and beverage industries. Another aspect the Dutch are renowned for is their integrated water management and multi-disciplinary approach that balances social, economic, environmental and engineering needs. Dutch companies are involved in the sustainable development of low-lying urban agglomerations such as Jakarta and Bangladesh, and coastal development in areas such as Dubai, Vietnam, Mozambique and Romania[22].

However, when looking at the Dutch water safety objectives, which were published in a water safety program at the end of 2014 (The Deltaplan 2015), it shows that The Netherlands is also preparing itself for the future and the impacts of climate change[23]. The plan states it will invest twenty billion euro[24] in order to secure a safe environment and to enhance its capabilities to deal with the extreme weather changes. In order to address these problems at an early stage the country wants to prevent possible threats that can cause the critical infrastructure to collapse and leave the country without efficient primary needs e.g. water[25].

The Netherlands protects itself from flooding with new safety standards for their flood defenses, which are mainly invested in the Rivers. The Delta Program 2015 provides more than 200 new dike sections standards. The new standards are enshrined in law. Secondly, the country’s sweet water supply is important as it needs to provide better fresh water to arm themselves against salinization and longer periods of drought. There is a new approach for high areas like the Pee, a region in the southeast of the Netherlands and regions that are becoming saltier, such as parts of south-west Netherlands for which the government has allocated more than 450 million euros for this[26].

The Netherlands is a front-runner and key player in the marine, delta and water sector. In The Netherlands academics has already adopted AI, as the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) allocated EUR 1.5 million for studies on artificial intelligence. Besides this it is mainly seen that Universities are promoting courses and further applied research in this field[27].

In regard to their position on AI, cyber security and blockchain The Netherlands has positioned itself to become a front runner[28]and are stimulating horizontal collaborations between companies from a different sectors (e.g. logistics, energy and finance)[29].

Watec

In order to bring international water experts together to be able to discuss and elaborate on the future outlook of the above named themes the Watec organisation is organizing the largest international water conference in Israel, Watec Conference 2017. WATEC Israel offers the perfect opportunity to hear from and meet a wide range of growing Water, Energy & Environment companies seeking a combination of partners, investment and professional services to develop their companies and discuss their future outlook how to combine these crossover sectors in the business sector. Besides this, live demos will be provided by Israeli companies presenting at the show and professional tours will be organized. This will allow the visitor to become part of the Israeli water process and its water mindset. The main discussions of the conference will therefore echo the digital age terminology: Speed and agility, “big data”, cyber security, transparency and optimization which are all global vectors of change that should be leading the modern water industry mindset.

Conclusion:

‘How can Israel and the Netherlands capitalize the smart water tech revolution?’

The global opportunities report is speaking about market opportunities for the smart water market. The Netherlands and Israel are known for their water technology advancements. Therefore it seems to be an interesting opportunity for both countries to cooperate on some of the crossovers that are mentioned in the report as they both have proven success stories in the field of water worldwide. Especially, since The Netherlands is dealing with sweet water issues and safety issues, which is a persistent problem of Israel. In addition to this, like Israel, The Netherlands has Water Safety and ICT high on its Top Sector Agenda[30]. However, it seems that Israel is a little more advanced in technologies such as blockchain, m-learning and AI. For this reason, it is interesting to see what could happen when combining the extensive Dutch experience in urban agglomeration and coastal projects with the mindset of the Israeli companies regarding recycling, desalination and its cutting edge high-tech sector. In order to elevate this research and crossover collaboration in regard to the cyber, Artificial Intelligence and m-learning opportunities we need to pinpoint the essential technologies and bottlenecks in the sector. The Watec conference is the perfect opportunity to discuss these smart water tech crossovers at the innovation or Israeli Cyber Pavilion [31] and explore possible future bilateral collaboration.

In short The Netherlands and Israel can enhance each other’s capabilities. Where The Netherlands is an expert in the field of delta works and marine technology, Israel is an expert in the field of high tech, water irrigation, desalination and recycling. Considering the heavy impact of climate change the two countries should thus combine their powers, and provide aid and support to countries with less experience in this field. Last but not least, The Netherlands and Israel signed a joint statement in 2013 to deepen and enhance the bilateral relationship on an innovative and problem solving level[32] of which I personally feel that the field of water and high-tech could support this objective.

The Israeli Embassy in The Hague will organize a water delegation to the conference, and will provide individual programs for companies interested in participating. For more information on the above named topics or information about the possibilities of joining this delegation, you can contact Trade Officer: Anne-li Steutel via anne-li.steutel@israeltrade.gov.il

In addition to this delegation, the Dutch young water professionals platform, Wetskills Foundation together with Technion University, is organizing a Wetskills Water Challenge at Watec where young professionals and students from The Netherlands and Israel come up with out-of-the-box concepts for case studies of Israeli and Dutch water companies. This will be the second edition in Israel (after the visit of PM Rutte to Israel) and the 26th edition worldwide. Are you a water tech minded company that has a case study that needs be solved or a young professional, you can contact us for more information via johan.oost@wetskills.com or anne-li.steutel@israeltrade.gov.il and visit: http://wetskills.com/event/wetskills-israel-2017/.

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Sources:

[1] http://www.globalopportunitynetwork.org/the-2017-global-opportunity-report.pdf p. 8

[2] https://weather.com/science/environment/news/california-historic-drought-world-brazil-africa-korea

[3] http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/climate-change-impacts-and-adaptation

[4] https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/GCIG%20no.46_0.pdf, p.1

[5] http://www.globalopportunitynetwork.org/the-2017-global-opportunity-report.pdf p. 8

[6] https://www.greenbiz.com/article/water-being-underpriced

[7] https://gcn.com/articles/2016/03/22/blockchain-government.aspx

[8] http://www.cio.com/article/3115776/internet/how-blockchain-will-disrupt-your-business.html

[9] http://commonstransition.org/the-revolution-will-not-be-decentralised-blockchains/

[10] http://www.waterworld.com/articles/iww/print/volume-16/issue-4/features/artificial-intelligence.html