As reported by Reuters, Israel has received bids from three groups interested in building and operating a desalination plant that will supply more than a fifth of the country’s household water, and help battle shortages that could arise from climate change.

Israel issued the tender last November when it said five years of low rainfall had overtaxed its system. The head of Israel’s water authority said the addition will help ensure Israel’s “ability to supply water in light of climate changes that are impacting our region.”

The facility will produce about 200 million cubic metres of water a year in the area of Sorek, central Israel. IDE Technologies currently operates a desalination plant in the area. Once online, 85% of total household and municipal water will come from desalination.

The plant will be the biggest in the world to use reverse osmosis technology, Israel’s Finance Ministry said on 16 May, and will join an unrivaled array of five desalination plants that already dot the country’s Mediterranean coast. Bids were received from Israel’s IDE Technology, Hutchison Water, whose main investor is Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings, and a partnership of Afcon, Acciona and Allied Investments.

Israel Chamber of Commerce in China (IsCham), a nonprofit organisation launched in 2008 in Beijing to promote trade relations between China and Israel, has established an office in Israel.

Ariel Briskin, the General Manager of IsCham, spoke at the inauguration ceremony in Tel-Aviv in April. The two countries had established diplomatic and trade relations 25 years ago, including mutual investments, infrastructure projects, and export and import agreements.

However, the relationship holds greater potential, he said.

“The opening of the TelAviv office represents a new dawn for the relationship between China and Israel,” Nechemia Peres claimed at the event, a co-founding partner at Israel-based venture capital firm Pitango Venture Capital.

His father, the late Israeli President Shimon Peres, launched IsCham over a decade ago in an effort to nurture the academic and commercial collaborations between the countries, Peres said.

“Israelis tend to think of the US as the main market for growth,” said Tal Badt, former director of business development for startup incubator X-Lab, operated by Tsinghua University in Beijing.