Israel's experience in water conservation and conservation was discussed at a bilateral meeting

Israel's experience in conserving and promoting water saving was discussed at a bilateral online meeting today. It was attended by Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Valentin Yovev, Vessela Nacheva - Chief of Staff Petya Avramova, Ilian Iliev and Ivan Ivanov from the management of Bulgarian Water Holding Ltd, representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. On the Israeli side, Jeheskel Lifshitz - acting Director General of the Ministry of Water Resources, as well as representatives of the State Water and Sewerage Authority of Israel joined.

By 2050, a third of the world's population will live in water-scarce countries. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the understanding of water resources. The population in urban areas is growing every year, and the need for drinking water is growing. Almost a quarter of it, and in some places even about 60%, is lost in urban areas. The application of new technologies can achieve a good standard of living, commented the representatives of the State Water and Sewerage Authority of Israel.

They presented the country's experience in dealing with water scarcity, which is based on the principle of good governance - identifying the problem and potential opportunities, taking action to reduce water losses, including the construction of reservoirs to collect resources, reuse and desalination, reduction of demand for the resource and its storage. Consumption regulation is also applied through price. With a monthly consumption of up to 3.5 cubic meters per person, it is the same value, but when consumption exceeds this level, the price of water also increases.

For the past 15 years, educational campaigns have been conducted in Israel, which are based on well-developed legislation and include children from an early age. Their goal is to change people's thinking in the direction of saving this resource. As a result, the use of water in the country has decreased by 17%, said the representatives of the State Water and Sewerage Authority of the country and expressed satisfaction with the results.

The participants in the meeting expressed satisfaction with the joint work so far. The bilateral talks started in December 2020 with the participation of Minister Petya Avramova, Deputy Minister Nikolay Nankov, the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Israel - HE Rumyana Bachvarova and the Ambassador of Israel to Bulgaria - HE Yoram Elron. The discussions are to continue, and one of the topics will be the exchange of experience on the implementation of SCADA systems for monitoring water supply and sewerage networks.