by Emuna Fried
The Local Solutions, Regional Impact: WEFE Tech for the Jordan Valley workshop at the end of May brought together practitioners, researchers, and students to explore decentralized technologies with the potential to improve daily life across the Jordan Valley. Held as part of the EcoFuture project, the workshop showcased innovative solutions at the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem (WEFE) nexus, supporting marginalized communities in adapting to climate change and overcoming infrastructure gaps.
The workshop started with a visit to the Al-Furaa Regional School in the Negev, the comprehensive school for all children from the unrecognized villages in the region from kindergarten to 12th grade. The school faces significant infrastructure challenges: The school’s connection to the grid is not secure, so it regularly experiences blackouts. Another major issue is the lack of a proper sewage system, and that wastewater was previously dumped into cesspits.
To address these issues, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies has been working with the school and with Laguna Innovation, who have developed technology for an off-grid sewage system to treat wastewater, with the added benefit of being able to use the treated wastewater for agriculture on campus. In addition, a Watergen system was installed at the school to generate fresh water from air humidity, supplying drinking water to the students and staff. Although the on-site biogas system was temporarily out of service due to wildlife damage, the overall setup demonstrates what’s possible when education and sustainable technology come together. The group also visited the agrovoltaic solar field that provides reliable, clean, and constant micro-grid solar energy to four classes, the only four classes to have constant power supply. The staff then introduced the nascent “First Bedouin R&D” where students from the school and international researchers conduct agro-desert research.
Following the Al-Furaa stop, the group proceeded to the site of the PRIMA funded EcoFutures pilot project in a Palestinian village in the West Bank. The group visited a defunct desalination system that was given to the village, a good example of a system that was placed in the village to provide a solution to a problem, but without proper management, funding, and training it fell into disuse, demonstrating what can go wrong when communities are not involved in maintaining the technologies intended to serve them. The lack of a sanitation system in the village meant that the community had no alternative but to dump waste in cesspits, which were draining into the groundwater. The groundwater would then be used to irrigate date palm fields, unknowingly using contaminated water which can affect crops. To address this, a decentralized system installed by Laguna Innovation now treats sewage from 23 homes, and produces clean water for agricultural use. The visit served as a powerful reminder that sustainable solutions require not just smart tech, but local ownership and inclusion.
The final location of the workshop was the Valley of the Springs, where participants visited Innovalley, an accelerator supporting sustainable agricultural ventures. Among its leading projects is Spring Salmon, Israel’s first land-based salmon farming initiative and the Israeli pilot under the EcoFuture project. Innovalley hosts several companies, helping them scale innovative, eco-friendly agricultural solutions.
The WEFE Tech tour demonstrated that real impact comes not just from innovative technologies, but from empowering communities to lead and sustain them. Across borders and sectors, collaboration and local ownership are key to building a more resilient and just future in the Jordan Valley.
