Renova Foundation members attended the event, which also addressed sustainable mining solutions
The strategies necessary to prevent water shortages, as well as new ways for more sustainable mining, were on the agenda during the Minas-Israel Seminar Opportunities and Sustainable Solutions in Mining, held on March 23, at the headquarters of the Minas Gerais State Industry Federation (Fiemg), in Belo Horizonte (MG).
During the event, the experience of Israel, where more than 70% of the water consumed by urban systems is reused for agriculture, was discussed as a good example to be followed in Brazil, mainly in Minas Gerais.
Luisa Ramaldes, analyst of the socio-environmental programs, and Wilson Brumer, Chairman of the Renova Board of Governors, joined the director of the National Program for Water and Renewable Energy of Israel, Ided Distel, for the roundtable discussion of the event.
Distel talked about the innovative system of desalination plants deployed in the country and the ongoing campaign for awareness, especially among children, for society to save water. “Water is a national priority in the State of Israel. If not reused, we would not have agriculture. The reuse and saving of water is a matter of mentality and culture”, he says.
According to Luisa Ramaldes, “it is interesting and motivating to see how a country with scarce resources used technologies and innovation to manage their water resources. We can learn a lot from them and apply it on the actions planned for the Doce River for managing water resources”, she says.