Hello friends and family! I’m sure you know but this amazing trip will be shortly coming to a close and your children will be coming home in just a few more days. The Amnon Ophir regime has fallen and the teenagers of icnext have taken over. One of the last things we did on the trip was probably the worst smelling activity ever – a stop at the Dan Region Sewage Treatment Center, or Shafdan. It has a very impressive campus and is one of 30 projects chosen by the UN as a way to show how companies get along with their local authorities and governments. Shafdan covers the Dan region which, if you didn’t take middle school Judaic Studies or Bible classes, you would know as the Tel Aviv-Yaffo area. The facility itself is the largest in Israel and even in the Middle East.
For comparison, the United States recycles only 1% of its sewage water and in 2009, Israel recycled 70% of its sewage water. Today, an astounding 85% of Israel’s water from toilets and other sources is being recycled – and they’re just getting started. Shafdan has had Prime Ministers and governors come to learn what they do and adopt their system. Even the governor of California came to Israel and to Shafdan and is copying their idea.
So by this point you’re thinking, “Danny, what is this idea you speak of?”. Well it is at this point in the blog where I explain to you what this crazy idea is. The Shafdan sewage treatment center uses natural filtration to transform the sewage water into the clean water that we use everyday. Not only is it a brilliant idea, but it also serves 2 million people! Crazy, right? The water can be used to grow crops through drip irrigation. The problems of water in israel are the drought, increase of water consumption and contamination. On the other hand there are also steps forward: positives such as saving water through drip irrigation, desalination and sewage purification.
This has been an informative trip. I know most of us will return to the States with more important information about the water situation in Israel than ever before.
Oh yeah, Im still ALL IN #nextyearbaby