Even as the National Water Authority warns that new sources of water are needed to meet Israel's water needs, scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are rising to the challenge. And their proposed solution is shocking. Literally.
Research by a team of Ben-Gurion scientists, headed by Shaul Sorek and Amit Gross, has shown that strategically targeted shock waves can flush pollutants from underground aquifers. In preliminary field tests, the Israeli scientists sent pressure waves through an underground water source contaminated with salt. The salt was borne along by the waves, essentially decontaminating the water itself.
The contamination of underground water sources is one of the most serious problems facing many arid regions, as noted in a Nature News Service report on the Israeli research. In particular, Mediterranean coastal regions suffer from seawater contamination of freshwater aquifers, such as is happening to one of Israel's three main aquifers, running along 120 kilometers of the coast.
Other problems that can theoretically be addressed by the Israeli "shock treatment" include pollution of aquifers by oil, sewage, pesticides and fertilizers. Until now, water engineers have feared that the only option to purify polluted underground water sources is a purification process after the water is drawn, a prohibitively expensive option.
Despite the initial positive results, Sorek and Gross cautiously warn that the shock-wave process is currently rather inefficient on the large scale of existing underground aquifers. "To what extent such a remediation procedure is feasible is still an unresolved issue," they said.
Research by a team of Ben-Gurion scientists, headed by Shaul Sorek and Amit Gross, has shown that strategically targeted shock waves can flush pollutants from underground aquifers. In preliminary field tests, the Israeli scientists sent pressure waves through an underground water source contaminated with salt. The salt was borne along by the waves, essentially decontaminating the water itself.
The contamination of underground water sources is one of the most serious problems facing many arid regions, as noted in a Nature News Service report on the Israeli research. In particular, Mediterranean coastal regions suffer from seawater contamination of freshwater aquifers, such as is happening to one of Israel's three main aquifers, running along 120 kilometers of the coast.
Other problems that can theoretically be addressed by the Israeli "shock treatment" include pollution of aquifers by oil, sewage, pesticides and fertilizers. Until now, water engineers have feared that the only option to purify polluted underground water sources is a purification process after the water is drawn, a prohibitively expensive option.
Despite the initial positive results, Sorek and Gross cautiously warn that the shock-wave process is currently rather inefficient on the large scale of existing underground aquifers. "To what extent such a remediation procedure is feasible is still an unresolved issue," they said.