dws-wetskills-israel-770px-1Wetskills Israel started off the working days with a real Brain Hurricane on 1 December. The start off of this Israelian-Dutch challenge for water master students consisted of a speed dating for all participants, energized by a hurricane of information and experiences on water management.

Wetskills is a series of events where Dutch water-related students meet foreign students and work on innovative solutions for existing water cases. Previous editions took place in Romenia, Mozambique, China, South Africa, Egypt, Oman, Indonesia and Morocco.

The lastest Wetskill edition was early November in Amsterdam during the International Water Week.

dws-wetskills-israel-team-students-350pxCross national and cultural water issues
"Global challenges on water issues  are both cross national and cross cultural. Collaboration has become the essence of scientific research” said Mr. Professor Oded Shmueli, the Executive Vice President for Research at Technion, welcoming the participants.

Johan Oost (program manager Wetskills), Professor Avi Shaviv, Director of Grand Water Research Institute at Technion briefed the participants on the water problems facing Israel and its neighbouring countries in the Middle East.

Speed-dating
Both invited experts and Wetskills students were challenged by means of a brainstorm session in a speed dating format. All the experts, with each his/her own background and expertise just had ten minutes to answer the questions, prepared by the team in half an hour.

dws-wetskills-israel-visit-mekorot-350pxReal case studies
The case studies are provided by different Israeli companies and institutions and asked Dutch-Israeli student teams to find:
● a solution to reduce single-celled parasitic pathogens of the Cryptosporidium and Giardia type in drainage basin of Lake Kinneret (from national water company Mekorot) 
● a solution for farmers to use the agricultural fields again and offer them alternative crop options that can be irrigated by eclaimed treated wastewater (from Water Corporation of Shefar'am area) 
● an extraction method of water vapour from the atmosphere either by 'milking' of fog or by passively collecting dew without investing energy, or by actively cooling surfaces (from Technion University) 
● a more efficient irrigation methods that will lead to increased forest growth. (Jewish National Fund)

Final presentation at water seminar
On Sunday 8th of December, the teams will present their idea by means of a Pitch and Poster session at the Water Seminar of the Wittenberg Council in Tel Aviv. This water seminar will be organised during the official Dutch government delegation to Israel.

The delegation is headed by Dutch Prime Minister Rutte, who is accompanied by Dutch ministers Timmermans and Ploumen.

A jury of Israeli and Dutch water experts will judge their ideas and decide on the final winner of Wetskills Israel 2013.

This news item was originally published on the Wetskills (as a pdf).

More information
Wetskills 
info@wetskills.com
www.wetskills.com

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