Oren said these things at the opening of the WaterHackathon event in which about 100 engineers and software developers meet at Tel Aviv University to solve Israel's water problems. The WaterHackathon event takes place for the first time in Israel and simultaneously in other countries around the world, under the auspices of the World Bank, for three days
Yesterday, October 23, the WaterHackathon event opened at Tel Aviv University. The event, sponsored by the World Bank, the Ministry of Taxation and StarTau, the entrepreneurship center of Tel Aviv University, from the foundation of the Student Union. The event is taking place for the first time in Israel and will last three days. About a hundred software people, engineers and GIS experts participate in the project to find technological solutions for various problems in the water sector. The groups that reach the first places will win prizes, international exposure, an opportunity and resources to realize the project, and a certificate of appreciation from the World Bank. The judging committee will consist of representatives of the World Bank, the Israeli government, Israeli industry and the Water Authority.
The opening conference that took place yesterday (Sunday) morning was attended by Buki Oren, former vice president of Netafim and chairman of Mekorot, who together with the Foreign Trade Administration headed by Boaz Hirsch founded the national program for water technologies NEWTECH. Oren will be one of the senior members of the judging team who will choose the winning project.
"Why should water be of interest to each of us? The answer is simple - it is not clear to me where all the other markets are going, it is clear that the demand for water increases by 2% per year because there are more residents and they need more water. 2% per year doesn't sound like much, but with compound interest it means that within 20 years the world needs to add an additional 50% to the water that humanity currently consumes. In particular, it is impossible to rely on rainwater because of global warming. That's why we need to treat water in a different way - technological assistance. We are talking about a market approaching a trillion dollars per year. In this market both prices will rise and demand will rise.
The demand for water today stands at 4,500 billion cubic meters of water per year, of which Israel consumes about 2 billion cubic meters - 0.04% of the world's water consumption. But another 50% means another 2,400 billion cubic meters. If we use desalination that costs half a dollar per cubic meter - 1.2 trillion dollars per year will be required to desalinate this water. This is a huge amount, so it is necessary to lower costs and recycle water to prevent the crisis. This can only be achieved through technology.”
"Now the question is what technology. Our main sponsor is IBM. There is the old concept that says we ran out of water in the local well, they started moving water from place to place, and then we saw that the level of the Sea of Galilee had dropped. We screw up sooner than others. You all know the aqueduct in Caesarea, this means that the concept of water has not changed in the last 3,000 years. As we approach 10 billion inhabitants. IBM understands that if we don't start introducing a lot of intelligence and a lot of knowledge technologies into the management of the water infrastructure, we won't be able to meet the task. If you (the participants) don't come to your senses, they will continue to use the same concept of Caesarea. Now the great wisdom is how to manage the water infrastructure smarter, how to know how to control the energy, the quality of the water, how to transfer the information from one place to another."
"We don't have time to reinvent the wheel. Think about what you know in your worlds and apply in a world that is thirsty for technological ideas."
Every year the World Bank allocates about 4 billion dollars in water projects and with that affects about 30 million inhabitants, but Julia Beking, who is in charge of the field, claims that she puts 4 billion dollars a year in 19th century technology. She believes that through technological solutions it is possible with the same 4 billion dollars to reach 60 million inhabitants and a large part of what is being done there with the support of our representation in Washington is how to transfer knowledge from a developed world to a developing world. No time."
An example of how the gap can be closed in the developing world can be seen in the fact that the penetration of mobile phones in the developing world was much faster than in the developed world because there was no wired infrastructure. If we complain here about the water infrastructure in Israel, we have water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there is no such thing in other places. While in Israel we only need to optimize, in developing countries we don't have time to produce the infrastructures and after that just optimize them. If you come up with solutions from worlds unrelated to water and don't think conventionally, how do you know that people don't die from contaminated water, how do you transfer the knowledge between treating a puddle in Rwanda and a puddle in India."
"IBM as a company that has a small mission - to sell 2 billion dollars a week defined their growth engines in the field of the smart city. They put a lot of effort into searching your mind. "
Oren also promised, as the chairman of the WATECH conference that is gathering at the exhibition grounds in about three weeks, to provide networking for the winning groups.
The hackathon event takes place at the same time in several other centers around the world, such as; India, USA, Peru, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, England, Canada and Nigeria. In each country, the problems they will try to address in the project have been mapped.
The global and Israeli team of participants will try to provide a solution to the water problems one by one in their own country. Today, about 2.6 billion people live without adequate sanitation conditions, and about a billion people live without access to potable water. Diseases related to water that is not suitable for drinking and the lack of adequate sanitation conditions are currently one of the biggest challenges in the field of global public health. Health studies have shown that 80% of all diseases in the world are related to water.
StarTau, the entrepreneurship center of Tel Aviv University is a unique international entrepreneurship center that was established in 2009 at the initiative of a group of students and graduates, with the support of the vice president for research and development and the student union. The center was established for the purposes of consulting, guidance and promoting initiatives among students and graduates of Tel Aviv University and other higher education institutions. The center works to provide all services for the entrepreneurial community in Israel and abroad, conducts a variety of courses and trainings, nurtures and promotes ventures with potential and encourages new ideas and developments as well as business collaborations with leading companies in the economy, businessmen and government bodies.
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All in all another way to make money