IDE Technologies launches
the Hadera Desalination Facility. Photo courtesy IDE Technologies

• Israel opens its first reverse osmosis desalination plant, in Eilat. Since then, five more desalination plants have opened along Israel’s Mediterranean shore — in Ashkelon, Palmachim, Hadera, Soreq and Ashdod — providing about 60 percent of domestic water needs. Though not without some environmental issues, these plants have helped relieve Israel’s chronic water shortages.

• Jaap van Rijn files his second patent for a unique zero-discharge system for fish farming anywhere, using extremely limited amounts of water and without harming the environment, enabling farmers to raise fish even in the desert.