The complimentary day-long conference consisted, of presentations and forums in the morning, and one-on-one meetings with Israeli service providers and leaders in the water technology sector. The conference was held in Johannesburg on June 6th, followed by Cape Town on June 8th.
The 6th of June 2016 saw the opening of the Israel South Africa Water Conference in Johannesburg, presented by the Israeli Embassy in South Africa to leaders representing the water sector in South Africa. Approximately 300 participants took part in the conference.
Obvious tensions exist politically between the South African ruling party and Israel, and the conference was intended to show a different face of Israel, and to present water technologies not yet in use in South Africa that could help mitigate the looming water crisis there.
The conference was partially sponsored by KKL-JNF Israel and JNF South Africa.
"We believed that in order to tell the true story of water in Israel, KKL-JNF could not be excluded", said Orna Toeg, manager of KKL-JNF's South African and UK desks in Israel.
KKL-JNF ran an information booth at the conference, where colourful poster boards informed visitors of its environmental work in Israel. The information stand drew a lot of attention and interest from the many visitors.
Notable visitors to the KKL-JNF corner included the Panama Ambassador to South Africa Jacob Dominguez and his second secretary Gabriel Antonio Arosemena Murgas, as well as Senator Jabulile Mashwama, Minister for Natural Resources and Energy in Swaziland.
"All the people that registered with us are very keen to cooperate with us knowledge wise," said Orna Toeg, in order to "improve their water situation and utilize the resources available in their countries and maximize their available potential."
Professor Eilon Adar from Ben Gurion University was the keynote speaker and he gave a comprehensive overview of the water situation in Israel and its applicability to South Africa.
Also attending the conference were representatives of companies offering innovative water technologies such as shade balls for reservoirs to prevent water loss through evaporation, desalinization solutions, toxin absorbers from used grey water, gravel pit filtration, aeration and microbe activation, rain cloud seeding, and more.
As one of the world's oldest green organizations, with 45 offices worldwide, KKL-JNF strives to share its accumulated knowledge in water management and afforestation of arid regions with other countries around the world, even if they do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The conference was successfully repeated in Cape Town on the 8th June, where it was enthusiastically received by 200 participants.
At both conferences, the Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Arthur Lenk thanked JNF South Africa, and noted the importance of its support in organizing the conference.