01.04.2011                      26.Adar ll, 5771

Wassertechnik:

Breaking barriers through water research

BGU’s first Jordanian PhD student discusses his work in desalinization and a road to regional peace via science.

It was a rather difficult decision for Amer Sweity to come from his hometown of Amman, Jordan, to complete a master’s degree and then PhD at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. But now he is planning to bring the expertise he has gained on Middle East water issues back to Jordan and other Arab countries in the region at the conclusion of his studies.
“We are all suffering from water issues – Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians,” said Sweity, stressing the idea that “nature knows no borders” and that water can be used to “bridge the gap between Arabs and Israelis” in the future. “Besides developing the whole region, you can promote peace in an indirect way. Water is a humanistic issue – it’s not something you can keep and hide or avoid people from. It’s one of the precious commodities that we have. You bring experts from this side to the other side, and you create a method of communications between the people despite the conflict going on.”…