Participants in the San Diego conference
Participants in the San Diego conferenceNo credit

A closed conference was recently held in San Diego between local officials and Israeli representatives, in which participants discussed the possibility of cooperation in the field of water technology innovation.

The conference was organized by Prof. Robert Sullivan, dean of the UC San Diego Rady School of Management, and San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer together with his staff.

In calling the conference, Sullivan and Faulconer sought to learn directly about Israel's experience in overcoming the challenges of drought.

San Diego, which is located in southern California and is home to 1.3 million people, has been suffering from an ongoing drought for the last four years, leading to serious problems in providing water to the residents.

The acute drought has led Californian officials to place an increased focus on trying to solve San Diego's water problems.

A number of representatives from Israeli companies working in the California region were invited to the conference, including Mark Lambert, CEO of IDE Americas which recently established a seawater desalination facility in the area, and Dr. Maya Shimshoni of the BIRD Foundation for binational research between the US and Israel.

Zohar Yinon, CEO of the Gihon Company, presented participants at the conference with the structural changes and reforms in the Israeli water system that he was a part of, and also gave a survey of the work being pursued in implementing new water technology in California.