The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute is this week hosting a diplomatic corps tour on Israel's Water & Renewable Energy Technologies ahead of the Watec Exhibition 2009.

The tour which is taking place on Wednesday in cooperation with the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, is headed by Avi Hefetz, CEO of the Israel Export Institute, Eli Ronen, chairman of Mekorot, Booky Oren, chairman of Watec and Doron Sapir, Deputy Mayor of Tel-Aviv Municipality and head of the Union of Towns Sanitation organization.

The diplomatic delegation will visit and take a tour of the Shafdan wastewater treatment plant in Rishon Letzion hosted by Mekorot and the Dan Region Association of Towns for Environmental Infrastructures. The Shafdan purification plant, which is responsible for the purification of wastewater from cities in the Dan region and its reuse for agricultural purposes, is considered one of the largest and most advanced of its kind in the world. Water purified at the plant is carried through the Third Pipeline to the Negev Region where it is used for all forms of irrigation purposes. In addition the tour will include a visit of the GES desalination plant in Palmachim providing 30 million cubic meter/year of desalinated and purified sea water and the Hirria Tel-Aviv region municipal solid waste treatment plant. Finally the delegation will meet with Yair Zadik, CEO Arrow-Ecology.

Arrow Ecology's experts have developed a unique system for the treatment of unsorted municipal solid waste. This system utilizes unique biological sub-systems to reduce the initial weight of the waste by more than 90% while producing a valuable and clean energy source in the form of bio-gas and fertilizer for agriculture. Metals, plastics and glass are automatically recovered from the waste before the biological treatment and sent for recycling.

The delegation is expected to include diplomats from the US, Japan, the UK, Holland, Poland, Norway, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Croatia, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Chile and Albania.

Borne out of necessity due to scarce water and energy resources, Israel's water industry is widely regarded as the nexus of world-class water expertise. With a projected 20,000 exhibition attendees from over 80 countries, including over 70 international delegations and 250 exhibitors, WATEC 2009 - Israel's largest international professional trade show taking place on November 17-19, is expected to be the pivotal sustainable-economy exhibition and conference for 2009.