Last month, the Trade & Economic Office at the Embassy of Israel in partnership with UK Israel Business assembled a delegation of leading water companies, investors and other notables to travel to the WATEC Israel Exhibition and Conference.
Internationally recognised as highly developed, the Israeli water market has benefited from numerous years of experience in managing scarce water resources, while the national industry is widely regarded as a nexus of world-class expertise in the water field.
Consequently, WATEC Israel has taken centre stage as one of the world’s leading water events, offering a unique platform to see the latest technologies from the water industry in Israel and around world. This year WATEC Israel was attended by representatives from over 100 countries.
Over the course of the three day visit, the delegation was exposed to a range of new, innovative and exciting technologies. In addition to attending the WATEC Exhibition and Conference, the delegation was taken to key sights within the Israeli water sector.
Following recent announcements by the UK Environment Agency demanding that water utility companies reduce their leakage levels, the visit to Raanana Water Utility was of particular interest. Here, CEO Nir Bar Lev and his team demonstrated how they are able to ensure that their leakage levels at Raanana are only 6.45% in comparison to a western world average of 30%.
At Hadera Desalination Plant, the largest Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant in the world, the delegates were given a tour and demonstration of how the water is treated, in addition to being given the opportunity to taste the treated water merely 1 hour and 30 minutes after it had still been in Mediterranean Sea.
In addition, to visiting Hadera and Raanana, the delegation received presentations from two key experts within the Israel water sector, Matan Friedman, a Venture Associate at Israel Cleantech Ventures who provided an interesting insight into the VC model within Israel and the sector in general and Boaz Albaranes of Israel NewTech, who gave a further overview of the sector and provided an interesting insight into the role of Israel NewTech.
Further 
to these two briefings, the delegation heard from the British Ambassador to Israel, H.E. Matthew Gould, at an evening reception kindly hosted by Bank Leumi. At the reception, the British Ambassador discussed how the relationship between Israel and the UK continues to flourish with room for cooperation within sectors such as water is limitless.
One reason that Israel has been able to build up such a presence within the global sector is undoubtedly down to its unique incubator models which were exposed to the delegation by Asaf Barnea, CEO of Kinrot Ventures, who explained how their incubator model is a key catalyst in developing water technologies. Asaf introduced to the delegation a number of the companies within his incubator, some of whom are already making waves within the UK water market.
The visit was rounded off with a visit to Netafim, the pioneers of modern day drip irrigation, and a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, before delegates returned home the following day.
The Trade & Economic Office and UK Israel Business have already received very positive feedback from the delegation regarding the visit and over three short days those who participated were exposed to the highlights of a burgeoning sector that continues to become increasingly significant around the globe.
