An-Najah Organizes the World Water Day 2016: Water and Jobs
On Monday, April 25th, 2016, the Water and Environmental Studies Institute (WESI) at An-Najah in cooperation with the Palestinian Technical University- Kadoorie Institute organized the GIZ funded workshop, “The World Water Day 2016: Water and Jobs” at the Korean Palestinian IT Institute of Excellence (KPITIE) in the New Campus.
The day consisted of three sessions which shed light on the academic programmes offered by Palestinian universities on water, the challenges that encounter the water sector in Palestine and the mutual relations between Palestinian universities and the public sector.
Professor Marwan Haddad, Director of WESI explained the importance of the water sector as 4 million people around the world suffer water loss, and 2 billion jobs are water dependent according to the UN calculations.
Professor Maher Natsheh, Acting President of An-Najah welcomed the audience and pointed out that the university is working on developing academic programmes to keep up with today’s progress and serve the Palestinian community. He added that water issues in Palestine are chronic and are in need of efficient management by national and international institutions.
Prof. Marwan Awartani, President of the Palestinian Technical University- Kadoorie Institute talked about the day as an annual occasion which spots light on the importance of water in our life, discusses relevant issues and offers solutions to the problems that encounter the water sector around the globe.
In his turn, Engineer Ramiz Tete, Coordinator of the Water Programme at GIZ talked about the programmes offered by GIZ in general and the water programme in particular and its goal to increase the available water supply in Palestine.
The day resulted in a number of recommendations, most important of which was forming specialized committees which works to join a number of international conventions; forming other committees from different Palestinian universities to conduct research on issues related to water and developing strategic plans that serve the water labour market in Palestine.
Notes:
The workshop was also attended by Dr. Mohammad El-Amleh, Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr. Adnan Melhem, President’s Assistant for Social Affairs; Dr. Khaled Sahli, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering; Eng. Khaled Barham, Director of the KPITIE and Dr. Sameer Shadeed, staff member at the WESI.
