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| August 2013 |
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Cross Border Youth Camp
  FoEME's Good Water Neighbors project held a cross border Youth Camp last month, gathering together participating "Water Trustees" for a weekend of campaign building activities. Students were divided into five groups, choosing between art, music, drama, eco-building and social media for building a campaign. They used these themes to build a joint message about water, each with its own medium.
 A "carnival" was then held on the 2nd day of the camp, in which all groups presented their work, and their messages; i.e. the social media workshop developed a presentation based on the letters "SW", = "Save Water" / "Stop War" / "Small World". At the next stop, at Akko's harbor, the group embarked on a sailing trip, but did not let the choppy waters prevent a dance party from forming in the middle of the boat! And before saying goodbye, they traveled to the Snir Stream Nature Reserve for a group hike and to learn about one of the longest tributaries of the Jordan River. The hike was a wonderful end to the camp that left the group refreshed - and wet!
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FoEME at Nablus WWTP Ceremony
Friends of the Earth Middle East extends its congratulations to the people and the municipality of Nablus for the official opening of the Nablus West Waste Water Treatment Plant. Following several cross border study tours between Emek Hefer and the Nablus municipality on the issue of waste water in recent months, we were delighted to receive an invitation, and to attend, the opening ceremony on July 8th.
This is one of the largest strategic projects for Palestine, as it will significantly improve the environment and public health of the local residents. It will serve 150,000 citizens by 2025 covering the western area of Nablus and 5 adjacent villages. In the near future, works will start on a sewerage project for Nablus East.
The "Good Water Neighbors" project is funded by USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation Program, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the European Union's Partnership for Peace Program and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). | |
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Protecting Ground Water - finding new ways to implement hazard reduction and prevention
 FoEME's efforts to empower selected municipalities are now reaching a practical stage. We have started a process, involving technical & political level officials and a professional environmental consultancy firm, in which every municipality will develop a specific implementation plan for hazard reduction and prevention. This process is based on the GIS mapping project which has already taken place in each municipality.
On July 21st, we conducted a workshop to discuss the difficulties and challenges of high quality and meaningful data collection, which is vital for creating practical and useful implementation plans for hazard reduction. Next, we will use the outcomes of the workshop to adopt a specific methodology for each municipality.
 Also, this month, the PGW-Palestine team completed the last training course; 'Safe Reuse of Treated Effluents'. The course was held in Auja, and targeted both farmers and municipal staff from six communities in Palestine, aiming to promote the reuse of treated effluent and help the trainees to define and classify the best alternative technology for irrigation. This technical training follows the successful, joint on-site Study Tour that was held in June 2013 visiting Israel's Shafdan Treatment Plant.
The "Protecting Ground Water" project is supported by the European Union’s ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Program. | |
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FoEME at the Stockholm World Water Week, September 1-6, 2013
 With the theme of this year’s Stockholm World Water Week focused on transboundary water cooperation, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) will play a prominent role. If you are in Stockholm for the events make sure to mark your calendars! Tuesday, September 3rd from 12:45-13:45, FoEME will make a presentation entitled “Politics and Pragmatism in Transboundary River Cooperation” and focus on our Transboundary Regional NGO Master Plan for the Lower Jordan River together with partners from the Stockholm International Water Institute and Global Nature Fund. FoEME’s Israeli Director Gidon Bromberg will make an additional presentation during a workshop on Wednesday, September 4th 9:00-12:30 entitled “Transboundary Water Cooperation, Internal and External Factors.”
 Also, FoEME’s Jordan River Faith Based Advocacy Campaign continues to build up to our November 2013 launch. This month FoEME was invited to present our Jordan River campaign to partner with faith based groups at a meeting for faith based leaders and their partners organized by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation’s Green Pilgrimage Network held in Trondheim, Norway. Representatives from major spiritual traditions, municipal representatives, international and regional organizations as well as city officials from sacred cities around the world attended the conference to discuss how the network can inspire green pilgrimage as a model for environmental stewardship. Locally, partnerships are being forged with Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders – many of whom plan on joining our November campaign launch.
FoEME’s Jordan River Rehabilitation Project is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Osprey Foundation and our Regional NGO Master Plan (SWIM-JR) Project is supported by the European Union’s Sustainable Water Integrated Management (SWIM) Programme. | |
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FoEME Director speaks at The World Justice Forum
The World Justice Forum  is a global gathering designed to improve the state of the world by engaging business, government, civil society, academic, and other leaders to develop practical, multidisciplinary programs to strengthen the rule of law. It provides a platform for leaders and change agents from all disciplines to explore and debate crucial rule of law issues with a focus on shared learning and collaboration.
The Forum was held at The Hague, Holland, from July 8th - 11th, with participants from more than 100 countries engaged in formal plenary and active breakout sessions. FoEME Israeli Director gave a well-received presentation on the Panel entitled "Sustainable Water Solutions". Click here for the full agenda. | |
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News from FoEME's EcoCenters
 We are delighted to let you know that our Auja Environmental Education EcoCenter is featured in this month's popular Palestinian tourism magazine; "This Week in Palestine". Click here to read the specific Auja EcoCenter article, and here for the full on-line magazine. We hope this will inspire you to come and visit us in Auja!
Keeping up with both the Auja EcoCenter in Palestine, and the Sharhabil bin Hassneh EcoPark in Jordan, our Ein Gedi EcoCenter is currently developing its own website as well. FoEME's three EcoCenters are part of our unique network of cross border ecotourism; each center offers a unique environmental education experience, and all of  them highlight the importance of sustainable ecotourism in the region.
To continue to develop our Ein Gedi EcoCenter as a focus for solar energy and solar cooking, FoEME EcoCenter staff attended a Solar Cooker conference in Altoetting Germany that showcased practical solar devices. Directly following the conference, she participated in a workshop dedicated to solar cookers specifically in the Middle East, where she also learnt how to build solar lamps and gave a presentation on FoEME's vision to expand the use of solar cookers in the region "Solar Cookers for Peace". | |
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