When Waste Turns To Resource. On a Novel Agro-industrial Drylands Project

Survival strategies of desert populations have traditionally included nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles and ensuant livelihoods. This has been the case for the semi-nomadic Bedouin of the Israeli desert, who have been undergoing sedentarisation in recent decades. This has affected both their lifestyles and their livelihoods. This paper presents the planning and design of a sustainable farming project for a Bedouin cooperative. A multi-disciplinary team conceived, planned, executed, and followed up a project comprising a site of 40 ha, located in the semi-arid part of the Negev desert, Israel. The intention was for the project to serve as a pilot integrating green principles, practices, and technologies, aimed at upgrading, improving, and modernizing traditional production processes and economic potential through soil improvement; recycling of wastewater; solar energy and co-generation; composting of solid waste; biogas production; green construction; and the re-introduction of indigenous species of vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs and spices that have been marginalised due to the availability of marketed products. With integration in mind as the main guideline, the design team aimed at utilising each activity’s waste as the resource for another activity, preferably onsite, through rigorous scientific evaluation and economic cost–benefit analysis (Meir, Int J Sustain Energy 34(3–4):154–165, 2013a). The project has been operating for approximately 17 years. This paper attempts to show the added value created through the synergetic outcomes of green technologies combined and integrated (Meir 2015). This strategic decision has created higher viability potential for the project, as well as much higher awareness of those issues among the project participants and the design team. This is vital in order to ensure that green concepts are fully integrated from the very beginning of conceptual design which, in turn, lowers their relative costs and enhances the integrative character of the project. This pilot project, Project Wadi Attir (PWA), provides a further demonstration of this claim and can thus promote such strategies and concepts not only within the Negev Bedouin community, but also among professionals and decision-makers currently still sceptical towards sustainability concepts and green technologies and practices. Furthermore, the project serves as a bridge across borders, with the cooperative sharing project developed knowhow with neighbouring communities in Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and elsewhere in the Middle East, where communities face very similar constraints. Thus, the project also promotes dialogue, understanding and peace. In the fast changing social and climatic context of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and North Africa, such projects can have a significant impact on the survivability of communities in transition (Carlucci et al. 2021; Carlucci et al., Energy Effic 17:52, 2024; Meir et al., Adv Build Energy Res 6(2):173–211, 2012). The paper also presents the discrepancies between design intentions and actual implementation, thus allowing a critical review.