Seminar

Israel has faced a severe water crisis for decades. The water levels in all aquifers fell below the
red lines, water quality deteriorated due to salinization and contamination, infrastructure was
insufficient and the natural environment was badly damaged. The crisis resulted primarily due
to bad management.

However, during the last decade, the most significant changes have occurred, and the water
economy is recovering steadily. Legal and economic reforms led to the establishment of the
Water Authority, to enter the era of desalination, treating and recycling most of the sewage
effluent for agriculture, re-filling natural reservoirs, restoration of the environment, to
significantly invest in water and sanitation infrastructure, and to prepare an executable
master plan for the future.

Short CV:
Prof. Haim Gvirtzman graduated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Israel, received
his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and completed a post-doc research at
Stanford University, USA. Since 1991 he has been a faculty member at the Institute of Earth
Sciences, HUJI, Israel. Prof. Gvirtzman established the academic program of Hydrology and
Water Resources at HUJI, served as a president of the Israeli Association of Hydrology, and was
a member of the Board of Directors of Mekorot, the National Water Company. Currently he is
a member of Israel's Water Authority Council. Prof. Gvirtzman has published about 100
professional articles. He is considered as one of the outstanding teachers at the HUJI. And he
won awards from the Chaim Weizmann Fellowship, the Israel Geological Society, Israeli
Association for Hydrology, and Yad Yitzchak Ben-Zvi.