An exciting event was held on Monday, the 2nd of January with all three Pears Foundation international programmes, Public Health, Agricultural Sciences and Community Development joining together in a collaborative fashion to seek solutions to global problems facing our world.
The annual conference was hosted this year at The Hebrew University’s Rehovot campus, The Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, and themed From Wastewater to our Plate: Is it safe to use reclaimed waste water for crop irrigation?
The participants were divided into five groups, each grappling with a different aspect of the problem:
• Is the problem local or global?
• Methods to improve water quality
• Agronomic solutions
• What are the effects on public health?
• How can we assess risk?
Each group comprised a mixture of students from the various programmes, each approaching the problems and possible solutions from a different perspective. The conference was attended by the Israel representative of Pears Foundation, Ms Dina Gidron.