Developed in collaboration with Professionals Abroad, a division of Academic Travel Abroad (ATA), this WEF-ATA program will provide an opportunity to see firsthand the advanced technologies and practices our Israeli colleagues are using to meet their unique water and wastewater needs. The week-long program, which will focus on such areas as water reuse, water treatment, and sustainable infrastructure, is also designed to foster one-on-one exchanges with our counterparts in Israeli, along with opportunities to network with key government, industry and NGO representatives from the Israeli water and sanitation sectors.

WEF is promoting this collaboration with Professionals Abroad as a part of our efforts to “globalize” WEF and give our members the opportunity to share, learn and network with their counterparts around the globe on a variety of facets of water and wastewater that make our profession so exciting. We also plan to bring the experiences of the week in Israel back to WEF members by making our journals, trip reports and presentations available on WEF’s homepage and through WEF publications and conferences.

The January 16-24, 2011 program to Israel follows on the heels of two previous, and highly successful WEF co-sponsored educational delegation activities: China (2008), and South Africa (2009). As noted in the attached outline, our delegation will depart for Tel Aviv, Israel on January 16, 2011, with meetings, site visits, and social activities taking place in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Tiberius and Jerusalem during our eight day program. An optional excursion to Jordan to visit the historic ruins of Petra is being developed as an add-on to the Israel program.