Israeli company to help end Marathwada water woes

The Maharashtra government has signed an MoU with an Israeli company to mitigate the water crisis in Marathwada. On Thursday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the financial capital of the country, the state government signed a deal with Israeli water solutions company Mekorot Development & Enterprise.

According to state government officials, Mekorot would design a water grid for the Marathwada region which would include water supply for farming, industrial and domestic use.

“What we are planning is that water from the surplus regions could be connected to those in scarce regions, for instance water could be brought from Jayakwadi to droughtprone regions like Latur through the grid,” said a state government official.

The water grid is estimated to cost around ₹10,000 crore, said the official.

Speaking about the deal at the Indo-Israeli Business Summit on Thursday morning, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that with Israeli help the state would try to give a boost to the state’s efforts to not only end water woes for the farmers but also help in doubling their income.

At the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Indian businessmen to invest in Israel. He also said that his country’s heavy investments in research and development and cyber security will bring future benefits to both the countries.

Harsh Goenka, who attended the summit, said it was more like a business meeting. “Israel PM spoke about augmented realty, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.”

Other industrialists who attended the meet were Anand Mahindra, Adi Godrej, Ashok Hinduja, Rahul Bajaj and Ajay Piramal.