fbpx
 
Home / News, Videos & Publications / News / Desert & Water Research /

BGU’s Water Expertise Sought by Texas

BGU’s Water Expertise Sought by Texas

November 18, 2013

Desert & Water Research

Eilon Adar

Prof. Eilon Adar, director of BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research

Jewish Herald Voice — Texas water officials have begun looking for possible desalinization plants on the Texas Gulf Coast and in the Rio Grande Valley. Last week, the head of Ben-Gurion University’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, Prof. Eilon Adar, traveled to Texas as a result of previous meetings in Israel.

The discussion involved mapping and surveying for a possible Texas-based desalinization plant to solve the state’s need to deal with brackish water. Israel has taken brackish water and turned it into clean, potable water, and Texas soon may be able to do so as well.

Texas is experiencing water challenges. With eight out of the 15 fastest-growing U.S. cities in Texas, there are huge demands on finite natural resources.

In an attempt to help Houston – and Texas – find the best water technologies and water management policies, Mayor Annise Parker returned to Houston from Israel in 2011, convinced that Israel has technologies and solutions to assist Texas and other coastal cities with severe drought and water management needs.

Water management officials from Houston and other Texas coastal cities just returned from a weeklong Project Interchange educational seminar in Israel, where they also participated in Israel’s renowned Water Technology and Environment Control Exhibition and Conference. Among the delegation’s many site visits, was BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute.

Mark L. Loethen, deputy director, Public Works & Engineering, City of Houston, commented, “I learned more in a week than I have in the past 54 years on Israel.”

Ivan Langford III, general manager, Gulf Coast Water Authority, added, “Some people asked me back home if this trip met my expectations. I told them it was beyond my wildest imagination.”

Read the full story on the Jewish Herald Voice website.>>