Bringing water to dry regions: The search for reliable sources of drinking water

Desert farm: In the southern Arava region of Israel, lettuce is grown hydroponically as this requires less water. The scarcity of water has triggered efforts to use water more efficiently. Photo: TNS

Scientists are crafting radical new approaches that may one day rejuvenate the world’s water-starved regions.

The Arava desert, a salty wasteland dotted with tufts of scrub, gets only about an inch of rain each year. And yet cows at dairy farms collectively produce nearly 36 million litres of milk annually. Orange bell peppers flourish in a long swath of greenhouses that skirts the Jordanian border. Kibbutzim (collective communities) with vineyards somehow manage to churn out Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc, unfazed by the desert sun.