Author speaks about global water crisis

FOX POINT — Seth M. Siegel is no amateur. He’ll arrive at Congregation Sinai in Fox Point to speak on Israel and an emerging global water crisis on March 15, having talked about his New York Times bestselling book on the topic many times previously.

He’s learned a lot from prior talks. He’s learned that his book is good for a positive talk about Israel.

“The number one shocker for me is how warmly I have been received on college campuses,” he said in an interview, referring to negative views of Israel among some on campus. “I’ve spoken at many, many college campuses now. I have found the most remarkably positive reaction of students.”

He theorizes it’s because “Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World” is not another military book about Israel. It’s not another book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s a book about how Israel became a world leader in water technology and how Israeli ideas could help mitigate against a growing worldwide water crisis. Siegel will discuss the book and how Israel can serve as a model for the United States at the Sinai event, sponsored by Women’s Philanthropy of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Federation’s Israel Center and the Edie Adelman Political Awareness Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, among others.

Siegel co-founded various companies, including Beanstalk, which features a computer code-writing application, and Sixpoint Partners, an investment bank. Now, he says he’s interested in focusing on nonprofit efforts and would like to write a second book about water. “Let There be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World” is both his first book and his first book about water. Well, sort of. It’s about water, but it’s really not just about water.

“It’s really not a book about water,” Siegel said. “It’s an alternative history of Israel.”

Siegel’s book, for example, tells the very human and historic story of Simcha Blass, an Israeli water technology hero most people will never know about.  “He’s a water genius. He teaches himself water engineering,” Siegel said, clearly admiring the man who was a key figure in every important Israeli water planning and engineering decision from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. A turf dispute led him to abruptly quit his powerful government job.

“And then sitting home licking his wounds he invents drip irrigation,” Siegel said.

Siegel, of New York City, acknowledges he has become the “water guy” and notes that “Milwaukee is a center of water excellence.”  He’s looking forward to afternoon meetings before his Sinai talk at The Water Council’s Global Water Center in the Walker’s Point section of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee non-profit is not an arm of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but representatives from the university’s School of Fresh Water Sciences are to meet with him there, said Water Council spokeswoman Meghan Jensen.

To Siegel, the human need for usable water is already in crisis internationally and the problem is even evident in America.  “We have a national system where people are now insecure about the water they drink,” he said.

Siegel said he wants to see more conversation about how to best use the Great Lakes as a water resource. He feels we need a national water strategy in America, with regional and local water plans. The drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan is an example of what can go wrong without good planning. “This is an example of bad governance,” he said. “Water problems are almost always a proxy for bad governance. We are foolish to think that Flint is an outlier.”

Israel can help the world better manage its water. Some of Israel’s solutions to its own desert-burdened water needs have come from new technology, but the fix has also come from Israeli approaches to governance, regulation and a nationwide cultural commitment to saving water. All of Israel’s solutions can serve as an example to the rest of the world, according to Siegel.

There’s not nearly enough adoption of Israeli technology worldwide, Siegel added, referring to developments like drip irrigation and the reuse of treated sewage. “Hardly a month goes by that Israel doesn’t come up with some new water innovation,” he said.

Siegel says he’s gotten a great deal of positive reaction on his book from both Jews and non-Jews, “because here Israel is shown as a model for saving or changing the world and people appreciate that. I maintain that this is the best story we can tell about Israel right now.”

“You can’t read the book without having a sense of admiration for what Israel has pulled off and that’s not nothing.”