Israeli president and Chicago mayor ink agreement in water technologies

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Mayor of the U.S. city of Chicago Rahm Emanuel on Sunday signed here an agreement aimed at consolidating joint research in water technologies. The cooperation, with an initial investment of 1 million U.S. dollars, will be conducted between Israel's Ben Gurion University and the University of Chicago of the United States. "Israel and the United States can make a significant contribution to solving the water shortage in the world," Peres said at the ceremony, according to a statement released by the presidency. "The world is currently suffering from severe water shortage and we know that water is not only the fruit of creation but also the product of science," Peres added. "The combination between a university located in desert and a university situated next to a huge water reservoir like the Michigan River is a recipe for bilateral productiveness and groundbreaking research," Emanuel said during the ceremony. The venture is set to seek for new technologies that would discover or invent more drinkable water resources around the world, specifically in arid areas by 2020. Israel, an arid territory itself, is one of the leading nations in water desalination and boasts the largest plant of water desalination known as the Hadera Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO). It has also developed various water-saving technologies, one of them the world-renowned drip irrigation system.